The Dragon Emperor Book 2: Galaxy in Despair
by Zelkova1224
Summary: Sequel to Rise of an Empire. Justin Date is now an Emperor of a Interstellar Empire and things are peaceful for now. However, that does not mean everything in the galaxy is the same. Multiple planets are in a state of Civil war and the young Emperor takes it upon himself to end the conflicts. AN: Multiple crossovers.Rated M for violence and language.
1. Chapter 1

It's been almost a month since I became Emperor of Galette. I was in my office just lying back in my chair bored out of my mind. When Sangheilios was annexed I changed the government of Galette so that there was a parliament to handle a lot of domestic affairs but in doing that I'm left with nothing to do. As emperor I was to handle things internationally with the acceptance of Parliament. The thing I was in full control over was the military which was currently just the navy guarding borders. I heard the door of my office open and saw Leo and Gaul enter.

"Wow you look bored out of your mind." Gaul said amused.

"That assumption would be correct little brother." I responded in a monotone voice.

"Why don't you go explore the galaxy for a while since you are not needed here?" A third male voice suggested. In the door way was Kurama.

"That's actually not a bad idea; you've had little to no work ever since Parliament was formed weeks ago. Instead of just sitting in this office doing nothing, you could be doing something productive out there." Leo said looking to me.

"What do you think Ghost? Ready to back out into the unknown?" I look towards ghost as he appears.

"It's better than sitting here." Ghost said next to me.

"Make sure you take Umbreon and Absol. They never like being away from you for extended periods of time." Leo said looking towards the corner of the room Absol and Umbreon were lying down on pet beds. I stood up and stretched.

"Then I'll go do preparations for the journey, I trust you two can handle things if something comes up?" I said walking over to my siblings. They simply nod with a smile before each one of them grabbed me in a hug. I returned it and walked out of the office towards my room noticing Kurama following me.

"If you think you're leaving me here while you go on an adventure, you have another thing coming." Kurama said with humor in is voice.

"Hey someone's got to watch my back." We give each other a fist bump and continue to my room. For equipment I was taking my modified ODST armor. I changed the shoulders so that the three sections over lapped like a samurai's armor. The armor was made out of the same element as the rest of the military and the chest armor was a modified ODST chest piece but with multiple pouches for ammo (Basically tactical add-ons). My helmet was also modified; on the forehead was a pair of googles with zoom capabilities. Over the armor was my trench coat Leo made for me. For weapons I was taking a gauss sniper rifle I made. As a side arm i was taking my mastered DE 18 Rebel pistol. For a secondary weapon I was taking an AF-4 Cyclone SMG with a holographic sight and forward grip. As for my melee weapon I would be taking my plasma katana. Kurama had similar armor but had red trim. Over the armor had had a red trench coat and on the back was a white fox with a rose in its mouth. Kurama was taking the same armaments and of course had his plants for melee combat. We loaded my Inventory with crates of ammo and food for both us and my Pokémon. We also took a lot of purification tablets and medical supplies. I said goodbye to my Pokémon that were not going with us and many of the castle staff and Kurama and I boarded our ship and left the planet.

In a couple of weeks we found something odd. We found an inhabited solar system with a planet that seemed really off. The planet looked like a paradise but its position with the sun should have contradicted that. The planet should have had a much more hostile and harsh environment. We choose to investigate the planet. We entered the atmosphere clocked and found an island with a village on it that was a bit away from a mainland city. We landed on the island and quickly made sure the ship was stored and with stealth made our way through the dense vegetation. We used our own clocking to hide on the outskirts of the village. The people were human and looked to be in the medieval age of technology. After two hours of observing there was explosions and the people started to panic. We overheard someone shout "the northern forces are attacking!" Kurama and I simply look at each other as a silent message was spoken between us.

'Here we go again.'


	2. Chapter 2

We quickly followed as villagers with weapons rush towards the beach. Kurama put a hand in front of me.

"Wait; let's go up the mountain so we can get a better look on the situation." Kurama said pointing up the mountain pass.

"Agreed, let's set up a hide and find out what the hell is going on." I replied. Kurama nodded to me in his ODST helmet and we ran up the mountain pass. We found a suitable position and set up a sniper position overlooking the beach. What we saw was chaos; there was a fleet dropping of troops in armor. The invaders were dominated with the color red and looked a lot like England during the medieval age. Among the defenders were unarmored villagers with weapons who were most likely the militia and very interesting armor and dressed in blue. On closer inspection we spotted a bipedal creature fighting the invaders that was not human. It looked like are really buff bull. There was a human female who looked no older than 15 in a very decorative outfit meaning she was someone of importance.

"I don't think we should get involved in this, we have no clue what this conflict is about and aiding any side right now would be unwise." Kurama suggested looking through the scope on his rifle.

"I agree we need to get information on this war, we'll just keep an eye on the fighting for now." I replied looking through my goggles. Things looked alright for the defenders until something came up we did not expect.

"Is that a motorized vehicle?" Kurama asked. The vehicle rushed the wall and slammed open the gate allowing the invaders to enter.

"More like a motorized battering ram. I think the technology here is most likely more on the steam punk side." I we continued to watch the fighting a man wearing red walked up to the fight and by the reactions of the other side he was hated and feared. The man wore white glasses and half of his hair was long and white while the other half was in cornrows and was colored black. He gave us a really bad feeling. We continued to watch him and judging by the way he acted it was no wonder why he was hated. His movements were sadistic and brutal; he looked like he enjoyed killing people.

"You know what I don't like this guy, how about we start dropping invaders." I said to Kurama. Kurama only chuckled in response before firing a round that echoed on the battlefield. The blue projectile hit its mark as one of the invading soldier head let out a spray of blood and dropped to the floor. The fighting stopped as people looked around in confusion. I took a shot dropping another soldier with a round in the neck. The fighting continued after the second shot, even with us providing sniper fire. The man we tagged simply tore through the defenders and the defenders started to retreat. A green flare screamed in the air, I turned my attention to that direction to see a ship docking on the other side of the island. From the look of the crew it was allies of the defenders. However this was a small ship so most likely it was an escape ship meaning the island would not get reinforcements and would soon be overrun.

"The defenders are retreating by ship we should probably move out." I say to Kurama.

"Do we take our ship or do we sneak on theirs?" Kurama asked getting up from his sniper position.

"We sneak onto their ship. That way we can make contact sometime after we land to find out what's going on." We packed up and reached the ship before the retreating party. We got below the deck and retracted our clocking so it could charge. Then we heard someone come down the stairs. It was one of the soldiers.

"Um Princess, we have stowaways!" the soldier yelled.

"Damn it." I muttered.

"Well there goes talking on our terms." Kurama replied.

"Note to self-make cloaking more efficient." I whisper to myself.


	3. Chapter 3

We reached the dock of a nearby city. Guards pointed their weapons at us and told us to get off the ship. We followed the three people that made it of the island. The young girl who was now known as a princess had shorter brown hair with a few longer tails in the back, the bipedal bull, and a young boy around the age of the princess who carried a sword and shield. The boy had black hair with a white highlight. We were behind them with guards pointing spears at us. We walked onto the dock our group approached a man with three soldiers around him. From the look of his clothing he was a noble. He was a young man with pale green hair and a beard. He smiled as he saw the Princess.

"It's good that you are safe, Princess." The man spoke.

"I'm grateful that you sent a Southern Forces ship for us, but it arrived too late." The girl replied.

"My apologies. I never imagined that they would attack before the ship was ready. As we thought, the Northern Forces are after the Guardian?" the Nobleman said. At this moment I set up a private channel for me and Kurama to speak.

"Kurama I think this country were in is in civil war."

"I would have to agree, the terms of Northern and Southern Forces back that logic."

"I'm so glad Umbreon and Absol agreed to stay in their Pokeballs for now."

"That would have caused even more issues, so yeah I would agree to that too."

"I believe that is likely the case." The princess replied.

"I should have never sent you to that island. It must have been a terrible ordeal." The nobleman sound convincing but me and Kurama were starting to hear that this man was putting on a front. "What's the island's status?"

"Highwind Island...has been completely occupied by Northern Forces. They attacked with Overwhelming numbers. We must retake the island at once." The princess said with determination.

"No, I believe we should no longer concern ourselves with that island." The noble man rejected surprising many of those present.

"A cold military man." Kurama stated.

"I don't think this guy is one of those calculating types there is something else going on here." I replied.

"We have spies within the Northern forces, remember? That being the case, we should be able to obtain information on the sentinels soon enough. There is no need to risk ourselves to take back the Guardian from the Northern forces." The noble stated.

'Then why go to the island in search of it in the first place?' I thought.

"I want to assist the island. I'm not requesting we take back the guardian." The princess interjected.

"We have a conflict of views here the princess is more concern for the people while the nobleman is more about strategic gains." Kurama informed me.

"In any event, aside from the guardian, that island is a piece of land that is of no value to us. It lacks sufficient strategic value to warrant re-taking it. It would only be a waste of troops."

'No heart for the people only cares about military results.'

"But we..." The princess was at a loss for words.

"Perhaps we should drop the matter for now. You look exhausted. Everyone is waiting for you." With that the noble begins to walk away. The young boy from the island however angered by the noble walked up and socked the man in the face knocking him to the ground.

"Saw that one coming." Kurama said chuckling a bit.

"Lord Alex, Are you alright?" The soldiers asked.

"As if I'd ask you for help you bastard!" The boy yelled.

"Such insolence, how dare you raise a hand to Lord Alex?! Do you want to die?!" One of the guards yelled at the boy pointing his spear at him.

"Stop this! This man is a civilian." the princess intervened.

"Oh? I take it your friend is an islander?" Lord Alex said getting to his feet.

"Yes. And he watched as his homeland was lost in the battle today. That's why..." The princess was cutoff.

"Enough! You're... you're all the same every one of you!" The boy was cut off and the huge bull man knocked the kid out.

"Alex, please, as a favor to me, forgives this rude behavior." The princess said. The words sounded forced meaning she did not like what she was saying.

"Of course. Your wish is my command, Princess." Alex took his leave and the princess turned to us and told us to follow them. We were led to a tavern were they laid the young boy on one of the beds. We were told to sit down at one of the table and the princess began to speak to us.

"You were not on that ship when it left port, which means you escape the island along with us. However that armor you wear, I don't recognize it."

"We're not from the country, we got caught up in the fighting and when we saw the ship land we thought it was a way off the island." I spoke in a calm tone.

"If it's not too much trouble can you tell us what is going on?" Kurama added. The princess looked at her companion for a second before telling us what was happening. As we thought the country was in a civil war as a usurper who was the former prime minister of the country killed the queen and took the throne as king. The princess, whose name was Zephie, was captive for most of the season managed to escape and gained the help of loyalist forces under Count Alex. After the explanation the kid that was knocked out came down the stairs and over to us.

"Oh you're finally awake. Thank goodness, I was worried." Zephie said with a relived tone.

"I suppose I should thank you for helping me take such a nice nap." the kid said in a sarcastic voice.

"I apologize for what I did. Still, at the time, that was the only way to calm you." The one known as Argo tried to explain. But the boy was not having any of it.

"Goodness, you don't say? In that case, I suppose I owe you my life once again, don't I?" He responded in a sarcastic tone.

"I apologize, too. Count Alex is... What he said, he didn't say out of malice. It's just that, the Southern forces are currently in a precarious position." Zephie tried to explain themselves.

"No, that's all right. You don't have anything to apologize for...really. Besides, I was planning to leave here anyway."

"Huh? Why?" Zephie asked confused.

"I'm going... to avenge Melissa. I'll go north and search for Elgar."

"How reckless. You can't do it by yourself." Argo tried to reason with the kid.

"Leave me alone... how is it any of your business anyway? I'm leaving to search for Elgar."

"You think that you can slip through the Northern Forces' cordon by yourself? Elgar is feared for his brutality, even among the ranks of the Northern Forces." Argo explained.

"Sounds like a grade a psychopath." I added listening to the conversation.

"Ha, it's a little late for that now. It's because of you people that the Northern Forces attacked my island in the first place."

"Juto..." Zephie look surprised.

'The Northern Forces attacked Highwind Island because you people were sitting out there for so long, dragging out your precious Guardian research! It's because of you... that Malissa is dead!"

"Kid a word of advice; don't go blaming people when you have errors in your logic." I was getting a little pissed at this guy.

'Why you..." I cut him off.

"You're putting blame on people who have nothing to do with the issue. Without them there, you would have been killed as well. Your enemy would have attacked ether way. Now I don't like the fact that this Count Alex has total disregard on civilians but you are sure as hell not helping the situation by blaming your problems on those who just happen to be standing near you. So how about you just cool it."

"He's right Juto. You're saying that if it wasn't for the Southern Forces, the island wouldn't have fallen, and Malissa would not have died?" Argo explained.

"Juto. I'm not saying there isn't a way to avenge her." Zephie entered the conversation once again.

"What do you mean?" Juto asked.

"You can avenge Melissa's death. But you aren't capable of doing it, not right now. Even if you went north to get your revenge, you couldn't take on the whole army by yourself. It would be suicide."

"And you know what they say revenge is a dish best served cold." Kurama added.

"But if you join the Southern forces, you can be sure that you will meet Elgar on the battlefield someday." Zephie added.

'One hell of a recruitment message.' Ghost said in my head.

"Wait, are you telling me to join the Southern Forces? You expect me to kiss up to that Alex guy? Get serious... No way am I gonna sign up." Juto said getting angry again.

"What kind of fool says no to the Princess?" A new voice was heard. I turn my head to see another young teenage boy. He had messy brown hair and eyes. His jacket was a fade pattern where the bottom was red and faded to yellow at the shoulders with black trim. He wore orange gauntlets with black fingerless gloves and black pants with a green stripe going down the side. "Your rudeness doesn't know when to quit."

"Say what?!" Juto yelled reaching for his sword. The new teen hand produced a fireball.

"So, you wanna fight?' the teen said with a cocky voice. Juto charged at him.

"Stop this!" Zephie yelled and launched a blast of some kind at Juto sending him through a table and across the room. She walked over and picked up Juto's sword.

"You can't even block a paltry attack like that...With such puny power, do you really think you can defeat Elgar?" Zephie stated with a defeated looking Juto.

"Uh, Princess, who is this nitwit?" The teen asked as Juto got back on his feet.

"You little pip-squeak... You wanna go at it for real?!" Juto was once again getting pissed.

"You're a rude one, all right. We just met, and you're already picking a fight."

"Your bantering is not helping much." I said jokingly.

"Eh, detail." The teen plays it off and turns his attention back to Juto.

"You may be big, but you were sent flying like a ragdoll. Wuss."

"That's enough, Crocell. Juto, don't let him get to you, either." Argo said trying to break up the fight.

"Man, right when it was getting good." I once again said as a joke. Crocell at this point was looking at Kurama and I curiously.

"Crocell has a unique personality and a barbed tongue. If you take his bait, you'll be fighting non-stop. Now where were we?" Argo continued.

"There's nothing to talk about. I have no intention of joining the Southern Forces."

"You'll go, even knowing you'll be killed. That is how you plan to get revenge?" Argo once again trying to get Juto to see reason.

"Juto surely you realize that this reckless? If you were truly serious about avenging her, you wouldn't be so rash. Juto, you're feeling guilty for being the only one to escape with your life. I don't see a man out for revenge. The only thing I see is a man who is being stubborn in a futile attempt to escape his guilt." Zephie once again entering the conversation.

"You're wrong, I'm...!"

"If I'm wrong, then why don't you calm down! I understand. I understand all too well what you are feeling...I've lost many, many soldiers at Elgar's hand. And I too have nearly lost my own life to him. You and I... we share a common goal. Elgar is a man from whom i must get revenge. I want to stop you from continuing down the path of battle. But you aren't interested in quitting, are you? If that's the case, then fight by our side!"

'Once again one hell of a recruiter.' Ghost once again commenting in my head.

"Let me...think it over.' Juto seems to finally calm down. Juto went back upstairs as attention was once again placed on us.

"Sorry about all that, I still don't know your names." Zephie said to us.

"Justin Date." I say through my helmet.

"Kurama Minamino, at your service." Zephie smiled in response.

"Well while the fighting occurred at the island there were multiple fast moving projectiles that were aimed at the Northern Forces can I assume that was you two."

"That would be us, we planned to only watch but when that Elgar guy came along we decided to help." I answered truthfully which Zephie nodded.

"Am I able to persuade you two in some way to aid us in our struggle."?  
"Considering we killed about a dozen Northern troops and the fact I don't like this Elgar guy..." I say before Kurama finishes my statement.

"We would be glad to help." Juto came down some time later and accepted the proposal although the terms were argued a bit but Juto ended up joining Zephie's Counter-Sentinel Unit.

"So, has anything unusual happened around here while we were away at Highwind Island?" Zephie asked Crocell.

"There sure has. While you guys were shooting it out on that island, the rest of us here were fighting a battle at Oldfox Canyon. In the end, we turned tail and ran, though..." Crocell replied.

"It was because of the enemy general Sion Regral... wasn't it?"

"Right. as long as he's protecting the canyon, it'll take more than a half-baked force to take him on. Plus, there's one other annoying problem."

"Annoying?" Zephie questioned.

"Werewolves. They teamed up with the Northern Forces and attacked the Southern Forces. Their condition for working together must have been that all the booty would go to the Werewolves."

"I thought that they'd been lying low for a while, but they were letting Northern Forces do the dirty work while they reaped the profits." Argo Injected.

"Which is why General Headquarters has sent down orders for the Counter-Sentinel Unit to take out the Werewolves main base. Well, having you two back will certainly make things easier. Those crybabies in the regular army aren't any use at all."

"That's your country's training program's fault." I stated.

"I'll give that one to you." Crocell shrugged his shoulders.

"So, that's the situation." Zephie thought about this before making sure Juto was listening.

"What, we're bringing this guy along, too? Well, just hang back and watch or something, okay?" Crocell once again with his bantering.

"Hmph, right back at you." Juto said confidently.

"Talk big while you can. Oh, don't pee your pants when we're facing those Werewolves, got it?'"

"Say what!?"

"Just drop it. I thought I said you're teammates now." Argo interrupted the banter between the two teens.

"I haven't accepted this guy as one of us yet."

"What about us?" I ask Zephie.

"You two can come along if you wish."

"Better than sitting around here." Kurama says as we stand up and follow the group out the city.


	4. Chapter 4

As we headed into the forest it seemed that Juto and us have a lot to learn about this world. Juto was given a "Cube" Which was basically this planet's version of a pager. As we traveled the countryside towards the location of the Werewolves base we learned much about our comrades. Crocell was considered a Fire Mage and Zephie was a wizard although she has some control issues. We neared the base when both Kurama and I picked up are pace suddenly and got in front of the group much to their confusion. As we neared a group of bushes on the side of the road we travelled on, We pulled out our pistol and fired a round into the bushes as we past them. The pistols are built to be silent so only our group heard the small noise the pistols gave off. Much to the surprise of everyone, two Werewolves fell out with plasma wounds through their skulls.

"How did you know they were there and what the hell are those?" Juto asked pointing to our hands.

"We could hear them as we approached, as for these..." I started to explain until Crocell interrupted.

"Looks like a modified pistol of some sort."

"You're not wrong Crocell." I said holstering my sidearm.

"Be on your guard everyone were entering enemy territory." Zephie told us taking the lead again. We encountered multiple groups of Werewolves as we worked our ways into the base. The Counter-Sentinel Unit was doing most of the work since Kurama and I were limiting our use on our weaponry. We killed a couple with our Hand-to-Hand ability but we allowed our comrades to do their thing.

We reached the center of the base and were met with stiff resistance. I encountered Three Werewolves armed with two short swords. The three charged me and I rolled out of the way. The closest one to me tried to do an overhand slash at me but I caught the sword by the handle and drove it into the Werewolf killing it. I duck a slash from the second; with the miss strike i kicked the werewolf's locked knee breaking it as the Werewolf cries in pain. The werewolf ends up dropping one of its blades; I pick it up and stab it through the creature's neck. I heard the third coming up behind me but i then see it fall into a bunch of pieces. I look to see that Kurama used his rose whip to kill the third werewolf. I nod to him in thanks and he nods back. The others take out the other Werewolves and from the back center of the base were a hut and a huge Werewolf comes out.

"That must be the boss." Kurama said.

Crocell created a big ball of fire and kicked it like a soccer ball at the boss hitting it in the chest but it seemed only to enrage the beast as it charged us. Kurama and I dodge away from the group. Argo blocks the first strike from the boss and pushes it back before trying a slash with his axe. The Werewolf parries the attack pushes Argo away. Juto lands a few slashes to its back but not doing too much damage before he get hit by a fist. Zephie hits the massive creature's chest with the same attack Juto was hit by earlier but once again does little damage. I charged some Ki into my fist and phase in front of the boss. I connect with his chest shattering a hole in his armor. I back off and Crocell saw the opening and created another huge fireball and kicked it dead on the hole killing the boss. Crocell gives me thumbs up for the assist. After a second Juto speaks up.

"What's all this?" looking around the camp.

"Plunder, taken from the Southern Forces. Damn... I can't believe it's this bad." Crocell states also looking around. There were boxes everywhere.

"It seems that the Werewolves had been working with the Northern Forces of quite some time." Argo added.

"This is...I don't believe it!" Zephie yelled not too far away from us.

"Princess, what's the matter?" Crocell asked as we join her. She pulled out some king of light black armor.

"This is... Kaito's Armor... I can't believe I'm finding it in a place like this." Zephie said saddened.

"Kaito?" Juto asked confused.

"A mercenary we could always rely on. He put his life on the line for Lanzheim, fighting on the front lines. I strongly doubt he was killed by Sion Regral." Argo explained.

"How did he die, then?" asked Juto.

"I've always heard that Kaito acted as a decoy to allow his men to escape, and fought to his last breath. No matter how brave he was, he was no match for their numbers." Crocell said sadly.

"He died as an honorable warrior." I added.

"Zephie. Kaito's death is regrettable, but if not for his sacrifice, many more would have died that day." Argo said trying to cheer up the sad Zephie.

"I know... There was no other choice."

'They were there at the battle.' Ghost added in my head.

"Juto...will you... take Kaito's Armor? Kaito was a warrior who bravely faced even Sentinels. He is no longer with us, but I'd like his torch to be passed on to you." Zephie looked at Juto expectantly.

"Huh?" Juto looked very unsure.

"Kaito's armor deserves better than to rust out here in the wild Juto might as well take it." I added. That seemed to convince Juto as he took the armor and put it on.

"We're done here, let's head back to Abazet." Crocell stated after we were done looking around.

"Our mission is complete; there is no need to rush getting back." Argo suggested.

"I guess you're right, besides, the Princess doesn't look like she's ready to leave just yet."

"Today has been difficult for her. Every piece of plunder represents a dead soldier." Argo said to Juto.

"Being a princess who leads a Southern Forces unit is probably pretty though."

"Especially when she is so young." I added looking over the Zephie.

"Well in that case, she shouldn't have started this war in the first place. I mean she's fighting to retake her throne, right?" Juto was starting to piss me off again.

"What are you talking about? It was that bastard Schuenzeit that started it. He assassinated the previous queen and then sent Sentinels after anyone who spoke out against him. If the Southern Forces hadn't been on Highwind Island, it would have fallen victim to the Sentinels long ago." Crocell was getting a heated again.

"Come on, the Southern Forces were useless. Face it! In the end, they abandoned Highwind Island."

'Didn't we already go over this?' I asked in my head.

'We did but it seems Juto still harbors that thought.' ghost answered.

"Are you saying that was the Princess' fault?" Crocell looked like he was about to snap.\

"Here we go again." I heard Kurama say next to me.

"Listen, pal. It's because of the Princess that you're alive right now. If it was me, I wouldn't be babysitting some self-centered jerk who was spouting crap about getting revenge. The Princess tries to shoulder the burden for everything herself. She'd feel the same even if you hadn't said it was the Southern Forces fault. I lost everything I had because of the Northern Forces too. But I didn't try to blame it on someone else like you do. It's her own undeniable sense of responsibility that causes her to lead a front-line unit with no regard of the danger!"

'Lecture on Crocell.' I was really starting to like the kid. Crowell's lecture managed to shut Juto up for the moment.

"Zephie is desperately trying to end this war. Which is why the burden that bears her down is commensurately heavy. She herself was the one who suffered the most over the fact we couldn't save Highwind Island." Argo added to the argument.

"Everyone, don't be too hard on Juto." Zephie said joining us.

"Princess..." Crocell tried to argue but was unable to make one.

"I fail to save the Island. I failed to fulfill my responsibilities as Princess. Juto had every right to criticize me harshly." Zephie stated strongly.

"What are you saying?" Crocell was highly confused right now.

"Come; let us go back to Abazet." Zephie announced.


	5. Chapter 5

We arrived back at Abazet with no issue. Our group split up when we got into town. Juto went back to the barracks, Zephie went to report at General Headquarters, and the rest of us did our own thing in town. We rested for the day and we met up back at the barracks the next morning to discuss what to do next.

"We've received two missions from Commander Raud." Argo announced.

"But we just cleared out those Werewolves! I mean are we the only unit in the Southern Forces? And  
seriously two missions!" Crocell said annoyed

"Even our own unit is short-handed due to the preparations for the operation in Oldfox Canyon. Our first mission is to search out and eliminate a group of Lapper variants that are moving towards the port. We will not need you two for this mission so you can stay here." Argo said to us which we nodded. They had a small conversation about the mission before continuing.

"What a hassle, and the other one?" Crocell asked.

"Go to Abazet Port and bring back some bombs. Apparently, they're to be used in the battle at Oldfox Canyon."

"Sheesh, they're working us like dogs..." Crocell complained.

"We could handle the bombs if you take on the Lappers." Kurama suggested. Zephie thought about it for a second.

"Alright, there's a settlement of Nekonekos to the south of the port you should be able to get the bombs there. Be careful there are territorial wars between their people down there."

"We can handle it." I reply leaned up against the wall.

"Alright let's move out." Zephie announced. Kurama and I headed south like we were told and sure enough we came up to the settlement inhabited by little cat people. The ones that attacked us were more annoying that a threat. We simply knocked them out and moved on. We got the bombs and got back with no problem. This mission was so basic it was almost insulting. We waited at the gate as the remainder of our unit came back. The soldier at the gate then told the Princess that there would be a meeting at General Headquarters. We headed to the building in town. Soldiers were practicing in the courtyard. We entered a huge building and the inside was very decorative we headed to the back of the building and entered a guarded room. Inside were Count Alex and multiple people in decorative armor which means their most likely officers.

"Now that the Princess is here, let us begun this meeting." An older man announced. He had black greying hair that was slicked back and a mustache. He wore decorative armor much different from the other officers meeting that he was above them. "As I'm sure you are all aware, the Princess was researching the Guardian on Highwind Island."

Crocell told Juto that this man was Commander Raud confirming my suspicions.

"Although she was unable to ascertain the method by which Sentinels are constructed, her research did uncover the Sentinels' weak spot." Apparently Sentinels had an element that acted as their hearts. "Until now, the Southern Forces have been hard pressed, but much more effective campaigns should now be possible. This is entirely thanks to the Princess' valiant efforts."

"It's been one pathetic battle after another for far too long. It's nice to hear some good news. However would there be a drastic change in the tide of battle just because we found their weak spot?" One of the officers said.

"You can be sure the Northern Forces know of this weakness and have defensive measures to protect them. Nevertheless, there is a difference between fighting a battle while knowing the enemy's weakness and not knowing." Zephie countered.

"Right you are Princess." Count Alex enters the conversation.

"However, I can count on one hand the number of times your Counter-Sentinel Unit had done any proper fighting. It has been defeated by events beyond its control on countless occasions." Another officer voiced up.

'Looks like this unit is not very popular.' Ghost said in my mind.

"Early on, we won by dint of sheer numbers, but we have now lost nearly half of those forces...Perhaps we would be better served to develop weapons capable of directly attacking a Sentinels' Kamond?" The same officer offered.

"There is not a human alive that cannot help but feel instinctive terror when confronted by a Sentinel. That the reason why we are so hard pressed. However, my unit has been training constantly to suppress that fear. Now that we've learned their weakness perhaps this is the best time to test my unit's abilities." Zephie countered again.

"Perhaps, but loses to date have been massive. Meaning no offense, but it seems to me that your unit is being maintained solely out of egotism on your part, Princess."

'No offense my ass, that was a direct jab to her.'

"Watch it gramps! Who do you think you're talking to?!" Crocell warned

"Crocell keep quiet." Zephie ordered.

"The audience will refrain from further outburst. I cannot allow such a statement to go unanswered." Raud ordered trying to regain order.

"Not at all. Please continue." Zephie said politely.

"Then I will speak frankly. To all appearances, your unit no longer serves any worthwhile purpose. We should instead of having a unit to combat Sentinels we should develop Anti-Sentinel weaponry. I proposed this before but it was not seemed necessary since your Counter-Sentinel Unit was being formed." This officer was not really making friends here.

"But if we go with developing weapons, it will cost time, money, and manpower. We have none to spare!" Zephie countered.

"Princess, many live are being lost due to your ego. Are you saying time and money are worth more than lives?"

'This is getting out of hand.'

"That does it!" Crocell and Juto snapped.

"Have you people ever stepped foot on a battlefield?!" Juto asked outraged.

"Juto!" Zephie was taken by surprise.

"Oh, and who might you be?" Asked the officer.

"This is Juto; he was assigned to our unit just the other day.' Argo answered.

"The boy they say defeated the Guardian." Raud looked at Juto.

"From what I heard the guardian was already weakened, you let him join the army over a trivial matter? I hope for your sake he isn't a spy."

"Trivial?! Al you people do here is sit in comfort and have meetings!"

"You'd go that far eh? In that case, let's see what you can do. Defeat a Sentinel for us."

"Stop this, Juto is..." Zephie tried to defend Juto but was interrupted.

"Sure, I'll take out a Sentinel for you."

"Juto!" Zephie shouted thinking he just made a huge mistake.

"Very well. If you do this in the upcoming battle. I'll admit to being rude and apologize."

"Now now, let's have cooler head prevail. The upcoming battle is more crucial than usual. This is an all-or-nothing situation for us. This time let us breach the Gate of Wailing and slay Sion Regral." Count Alex interrupted. The meeting ended there.

"Juto you went too far this time." Argo was not happy.

"So what, are you saying what did was right?"

"When you speak out like that, you're putting Zephie's position at risk." Argo lectured.

"I didn't mean to..." Crocell interrupted.

"Why not? That was like a breath of fresh air to me. You know, I had you pegged as thick-headed, but you can be pretty sharp sometimes. I never liked them either. All they do is talk and never set foot on a battlefield."

"If Juto didn't speak out I would have. No wonder your losing this war if you have leaders like them in charge." I said from the side.

"See, this guy gets it." Crocell says point to me.

"Crocell!" Zephie yelled.

"Hey they got under your color too, didn't they Princess? Face it, those guys always ignore us?"

"Yes, but there are thing you should not say out loud." Zephie tried to reason with him. "Same goes for you Juto. Do you have any idea how rude you it was to do what you did? This is Abazet, not Highwind Island."

"But they were the ones trying to pick..."

"Are you talking back to a superior officer?"

"My...My apologies, Princess."

"One more thing, if you ever take the words right out of my mouth again, you'll regret it." me and Kurama broke out laughing at these events.

'Things are getting good around here.'


	6. Chapter 6

Our group packed up and headed out to Oldfox canyon. Kurama and I were relaxed in the transport since we been through combat with the Covenant. One of us haa more combat experiance than all of our commrades combined. Kurama and I agreed through our private coms channel to keep an eye on Juto. He has no real combat experience and may allow his emotions get the better of him. We have no idea how he will act in the chaos of battle. While our party was packing up before the battle, Kurama and I found out just what this 'Gate of Wailing' was. It was a wall protected by this world's energy known as 'Kan' which means breaking through it won't be easy. Kurama and I could possibly blow a hole in it with C4 but we want to keep our exposure on just how advanced we are to a minimum. We only used our pistols once and our allies seemed to accept that it was a gun. However, if we continue to use it they will notice that it's much more than that and start asking questions which means Kurama and I agreed only to use our weapons on two occasions. The first is if we were by ourselves with no allies for miles. The second was if we absolutely had to, meaning it was life or death. We were lucky that our energy shielding has yet to be discovered so you armor just seemed foreign and unique to them. So taking any hits was not an option for us since our shields would be revealed.

When we arrived at the canyon, it was a bloody mess. The battle has already begun and the ground was stained with fresh and dried blood. There must have been skirmishes before the battle. We came up to the main camp of the Southern Forces and met up with Commander Raud as he gave us our briefing.

"Your primary objective on this mission is the Gate of wailing. We've have been trying to breach it for months, buy have yet to succeed. But, we have discovered an effective means of capturing the Gate of Wailing. The details will be sent to you via Cube. Once we breach the Gate of Wailing, we expect that General Sion Regral will be lying in wait there. The General always has two wizards with him as guards. Good luck."

With that our unit moved towards the front. We met up with an officer who says that we are needed to set the bombs we collected to destroy obstacles blocking the enemy flank and would lead us there. We moved down a northern pass was met with fighting. I moved my head out the way as a fireball went right past me. I look to see a man in red robes with a staff holding a fire ball in his hand. He throws the fire ball at me which I dodge easily. He then tries to form an attack using his staff but I phase behind him and kick him in the back the wizard is sent flying face first into the canyon wall. The wall cracks from the impact and the wizard fall to his back knocked out cold. I move to my right as a light armored soldier attempts an attack on me. I trip the soldier making him stumble forward. Once I get behind him i bring up my arms to his heck and with a quick jerk, snap his neck killing him instantly as he tumbles to the ground. I then phase behind a heavily armored soldier who was attempting to come up behind me and grab his sword arm with my left hand. I kick out his right knee making him fall to the ground. I twist his wrist to make him drop the sword and with my right leg delivered a swift kick to his face, leaving a dented helmet and a knocked out soldier. I look around for other targets and saw that Juto was fighting three on one. I took out my combat knife and threw it at one of the men. The knife twirled in the air and sunk into one of the soldiers exposed neck. The soldiers look to their fallen comrade creating an opening for Juto who eliminates them. I walk over and take out my knife returning it to its sheath.

"Thanks for the assist." Juto said to me.

"Don't mention it." I replied. We continued north with the officer while taking out the small bands of enemy troops in our path. It seems the enemy knows all about what we are trying to do but Kurama and I don't say anything about it. Along the way we were met with some armored Vehicles that carried some enemy troops and destroyed them to make sure they could not be used. This canyon was covered in blood on every path. We burned so tents that the enemy put up on our northern path as well. We took down the barrier which was a wooden barricade and continued onto the Gate of Wailing. When we reached the Gate, Kurama and I could see why it would take months to break through. The door was made out of metal and over it there were white chains made out of some form of energy meeting in the center where there was some form of a device. There were bodies everywhere around the gate. As we crossed the bridge, we heard something whizzing overhead.

"Incoming!" I yelled as hundreds of arrows rained down at us we jumped out of the way of the arrows when we heard hissing.

'Great no their throwing bombs at us.' Ghost said sarcastically.

I kicked the bomb towards the gate and as it blew up the device and chains disappeared. Our comrades immediately attempted to break the gate but the chains and device reappeared. Spears of energy forced our comrades back. Another volley of arrows and more bombs were thrown at us. I once again kicked the bomb towards the gate and attempted to punch through it. The bomb exploded and once again the barrier disappeared. I hit the gate with a Ki infused punch but to my surprise I only make a dent. The barrier reappeared and I jumped back as the energy spears once again attempted to skewer me.

"Damn." I curse to myself. "Kurama!" I sign to him to attack the gate when the barrier was down and once again dodged arrows and kicked another bomb into the gate. With our power combined we dive kick the gate at full power and kick the door off its hinges. The door was sent flying a couple feet with a huge hole in the center of it. Our unit was surprised at just how much strength we had. Showing our strength was one thing we could afford to show. Technology was a completely different matter. Behind the door was an entire garrison which our group takes down. We continue down the path cutting through the defenders and moved towards the main camp where the enemy general should be. We come up to a stone tower that was covered in red banners. In front of the tower were three very decorative people. One was in full plate armor and carried a two handed great sword. This man must be the General. The other two were in uniform which means they were the wizard guards.

"You guys handle the General, Kurama and I will take the wizards." I say to our group.

"I don't know what gave you the idea that you're in command here but I can agree to that." Crocell stated flaring up his fireballs. Our comrades charged the General while the guards tried to intercept them with Kan attacks. Kurama and I phased in front of the two and kicked them away for the general to fight them 1 on 1. Kurama and I began dodging Kan attacks form the wizards. Kurama was showing amazing acrobatic skills while I just used my speed to dodge. Kurama's fighting style was to find an opponent's weaknesses then finish him in a quick efficient manner. I on the other hand took the fight to my enemy and found weaknesses while me and my opponent traded attack. I used a zig zag pattern to close distance with my target and delivered a knee to his abdomen. The wizard leaned over in reaction leaving him open. As the wizard rose back up I twirled around and connected with a tornado kick right on the sweet spot knocking the wizard out cold. I turn to see Kurama pick up a pebble and with his thumb launch it into the other wizards face. What many without the ability to follow high speed movement could not see and i could, Kurama used his same thumb to launch a seed into the wizard's chest. This was a standard tactic for Kurama, he would use a pebble as a distraction then he would plant his death plant seed into his opponent and the result was a very dead person. The wizard recovered and tried to launch a Kan attack but suddenly his body locked up much to his surprise.

'It's over.'

Kurama relaxes putting his hands in the pockets of his trench coat and walks towards me. Once he was about 5 feet from me he wills his death plant to bloom. Multiple flower stems pierce out of the wizards and he falls over dead covered in beautiful flowers in full bloom. It wasn't long until the rest of our allies take down the general. They look over to us and then the downed wizards. Then they noticed the dead wizards covered with flowers.

"What the hell happened to that guy?" Crocell said pointing to the flowers.

"You really don't want to know." Kurama says in his usual calm and intelligent voice. We stayed at out location for a while when the Southern Forces regrouped with us and took over the garrison. Commander Raud met up with his for our debrief.

"The temporary garrison and enemy Pillar are now under our control. Based on our examination of the enemy Pillar, they have been ordered to retreat from the canyon. With the enemy in retreat, fighting them should be easy. Go on ahead; we will follow after you soon."

"Yeah! I guess we've got one more fight left in us!" Crocell sounded very confident.

Our unit chased down the enemy for some time. We came up to another barracks and were met with little resistance. We were met with a woman in a blue dress who seemed very cocky and began to run further down the path. She was armed with early versions of a pistol and musket.

"After her!" Zephie called out. Kurama and I looked at each other for a second knowing that this was a bad idea but followed suit. We came up to a rock formation behind out group when a black structure suddenly blocks our path.

"Damn I knew it was a trap." I said to myself. Kurama goes and examines the structure.

"We can't get through this, I'm afraid our allies are on their own.

"Do you feel that?" I ask Kurama.

"I do." We were sensing a really dark power on the other side of this wall.

"We could fly over." I tell Kurama but he shakes his head.

"That will blow our cover. We just have to trust them." After a while the sounds of fighting stopped we looked at each other. There was an unspoken argument between us but we came to an agreement. With our Ki we flew up to the top of the canyon wall and dropped down. We looked over the edge to see our unit was not hurt. We began to climb down and head towards the others.

"Look who finally decided to show up." Crocell said jokingly.

"Hey we need our afternoon tea and crumpets." I said in a really good English accent. This caused Crocell and Juto to laugh even if they didn't get the reference. Kurama just chuckled while shaking his head.

"Unfortunately we cannot go back due to the path being block so we have to keep going forward. Let's go to Cota Mare." Zephie announced.

"Wait, Cota Mare? But they say that the Mare people are prejudiced against humans. They'll probably attack us." Crocell argued.

"No, that's not necessarily true. On the contrary, this might be a good opportunity to convince the Mare to form an alliance with us." Zephie countered.

"Form an alliance?" Argo questioned.

"Oldfox Canyon is a location that we're going to need to retake eventually. When we do, we'll have to go right through Cota Mare in order to lead a charge on Dunan Hill. If we can convince the Mare to form an alliance with us, that battle at Dunan Hill will be greatly in our favor." Zephie explained.

"We don't want pursuers to come after us. Let's hurry." Argo announced.

'This is so much better than doing nothing at a desk.'


	7. Chapter 7

I could tell that at this point my Pokémon were getting kind of pissed. They have been forced to stay in their balls most of the time. I apologized multiple times, and promised to make it up to them but their patience was running thin. As we continued our travels we ended up in a marsh and suddenly purple specs started falling out of the sky. I watch one hit the ground and something like a dark vortex formed for a second

"Doomseeds." Argo said. From the looks of our party these things were not a good sign. We rushed to get out of the weird falling specs. Kurama and I looked out to view the sight of the Doomseeds falling. We heard Crocell and Juto arguing again and moved to join the group.

"Doomseeds bring calamity." We heard Zephie say as we neared. "When Doomseeds fall, crops stop growing and ripening, and all wizardry stops working. To the people of Lanzheim, these mysterious falling seeds that destroy Kan spell doom and catastrophe. That's why they're called Doomseeds." Zephie explained.

"How long has this been happening?" Juto asked.

Frequent seed-falls were first witnessed about three years ago. Just before the beginning of the civil war I think." That caught our attention.

"Ghost, make note of this." I whispered getting a confirmation from him.

"Historical records indicate that this had happened many times in the past, though...we still don't know what causes the Doomseeds to fall. But it's certainly related to Kan somehow."

"It that confirmed?" Kurama asked.

"Doomseeds negate the effects of all Kan in the vicinity." Zephie explained.

"I think I just came up with a theory." I said over the private coms channel.

"Ah, so that's why you can't use wizardry, it doesn't look all that bad at first glance." Juto said.

"True, but if you stand out in it for too long, your strength begins to fade, and you eventually die. Unfortunately I don't know many of the particulars, though..."

"Meaning its unconfirmed on how you die." Kurama stated in the Private channel.

"Still... It's eerie, but kind of pretty. It never fell on Highwind Island, so this is my first time seeing it." Juto explained.

The conversation continued about the Doomseeds however there was another key part of Information we got. This was recorded in another civil war 150 years ago.

"That only supports my theory." I state once again.

"Tell me it when we're alone." Kurama said to me which I nod in return. We then learned that a great wizard that acquired the Magna Carta would stop the Doomseeds which we once again kept for later. We also learned that the Mare blames human wars for the Doomseeds falling and Zephie feared us showing up at their door now would not be good but we had no choice. Our allies had no water and are low on rations; we were fine since we prepared for this kind of situation. As the conversations continued we found out that the Mare looked like humans but reached adulthood in 10 years and their short lived with a 40 year lifespan. They do retain their youthful look to the day they die.

"But if they find out we're soldiers, no way are they going to help us. What are we gonna do?" asked Crocell.

"You do have a point, the Mare despise fighting." Argo added.

"Why don't we hide the fact we're with the Southern Army until we enter Cota Mare?" Crocell suggested.

"I intend to propose a treaty with the Mare people, so maybe it would be best if we were to meet them frankly, openly and honestly." Countered Zephie.

'If the Mare hate fighting how do you expect to get an alliance with them?' I asked myself.

"Yeah, but if they decide to turn us away at the gate, it's all over. Or they might throw us out while the Doomseeds are still falling..."

"He has a point. Zephie what do we do? Travel incognito?" Asked Argo.

"I don't like the idea but we have no other option." With that, we continued on. Not too much farther and the seeds stopped falling. We neared the entrance and we could smell something.

"Oops... They have a guard, all right. And he's glaring at us." Crocell sounded not very optimistic

"You people there! You're humans, aren't you? Don't come any closer, my people don't want and contact with humans." The guard yelled. The man wore something like an elf would wear he had blonde hair like an elf but instead of the pointy ears he had light blue horns on his head.

A young woman came out of the group. "So you creatures are humans?"

'OK that sounded a bit weird and she sounds like a little kid but she looks like a teen.'

Zephie tried to explain our situation but it was ignored by the girl when she laid eyes on Argo. She walked towards him as he got into a defensive stance.

"Ooo! You're so cute! You're exactly my type!" Kurama and I fell down on our faces.

"W-What are you talking about?" Argo looked extremely nervous.

"I've totally fallen for your rippling muscles, among other things!" I started laughing while rolling on the ground and Kurama was trying really hard to suppress his laughter but was failing miserably.

"Fallen for Argo?" Juto asked. It seems Kurama and I were the only ones thinking this was hilarious. Here was this gigantic warrior beast completely embarrassed by a girl who has a apparently fallen in love at first sight and in not at all to say it.

"She looks normal enough, but there must be something wrong with her eyes..." Crocell said looking on.

"What are you implying?" Threatened Argo.

"Celestine Stop! What are you doing?! Get away from them at once!" At this point our laughter was under control as we got back to our feet.

"Why I've finally found the man of my dreams." Celestine had short dirty blonde hair and many would say she was a very attractive girl. Kurama and I began laughing again while Crocell looks at us with a smirk shaking his head. I think my Pokémon was laughing their asses off in their balls as well.

"How can you spout such nonsense when you don't even know who these people are or where on earth they came from?!" They guard yelled.

"But they say their war refugees and they want us to help them." The girl was listening.

"And a Trewa is with them too. We can't just open the village to every outsider we meet." The guard lectured."

"Y'know, he doesn't sound very happy. I forgot, is there any bad blood between the Mare and Trewa?" Crocell asked Argo.

"But we looked after that other human who was fleeing the war that one time." That comment caught the parties' attention. "What you just want us to stand by and watch them die?"

"Grr...Let's leave this decision to the chieftain." The Guard gave up and left. He came back no too long later.

"Well, what did she say?" Celestine asked.

"The chieftain has decided to allow you into the village, but be aware you will be under observation at all times. I suggest you don't try anything funny. First, you will have an audience with the chieftain." The guard announced.

'You know I can't believe that worked.' Ghost said to me.

"I'll show you to the chief's house." Celestine said.

"Something's fishy here. I don't get it. Why would they let us in so easily?" Crocell asked.

"I agree. Something is wrong here." I commented earning a nod from Kurama.

"It's certainly not what i expected." Argo added.

"Oh, by the way...I'm Celestine! What's your name?" Kurama and I could tell that this was directed at Argo rather than everyone.

"Uh..." Argo had no clue what to say.

"Hey now, Argo here is way over 60 years old! He's already a geezer." Crocell commented.

"S-Sixty?! Really?" Juto asked looking at Argo.

"Why are you acting all shocked over that? Didn't you know? The Trewa lifespan is around 200 years old." Crocell said looking to Juto.

"Hee hee, so the geezer's name is Argo! C'mon, marry me!"

"Wha...?!" Crocell looked completely shocked.

"Ugh, that's going overboard." I say out loud putting my hand over my visor.

"Please stop calling me geezer. Besides, your proposal was rather abrupt. I have no intention of taking a wife yet." Argo said getting a little irritated.

"Aww, really? I'll wait for you 'kay?" Got to admit she is persistent.

"Ah, now I get it. With the Mare, there's a huge gap between the outside and inside. By the way, weren't you going to show us somewhere?" asked Crocell.

"I've got more important things to do right now!" Celestine answered. Kurama and I smack our hand on our visors.

"I'm sorry, but my companions and I are exhausted right now. So, let's continue this discussion after we speak to your chieftain." Interrupted Argo.

"Ah...If that's what you want Argo." said Celestine.

"Oh no, she's only going to listen to Argo." I said out-loud.

"It would seem that way." Kurama added folding his arms.

"Oh that reminds me, the rest of you, what are your names?" asked Celestine.

"The rest..." Juto said with a sweat drop going down his head.

"She one of those 'I don't care about anyone else but my love' types." I explained to Juto.

"My name is Zephie." The princess was the one to ignore Celestine antics.

"Hm...Zephie huh? You and Argo had better not be lovers!" Metal clanks are heard in the background as Kurama and I start hitting our heads against a tree.

"You don't have to worry. Argo and I are just allies." Zephie said amused by the comment.

"I'm Crocell. Remember it."

"You're younger than me, aren't you? Call me 'Big sis' from now on, okay?" Kurama and I are face down on the ground knocked out from our head banging.

"I can say with certainly that I'm older than you are." Crocell said folding his arms.

"What?! But you're smaller than I am." Kurama and I get up to our feet and rejoin the group.

"I'm Juto."

"Y'know... If you put on some muscle, I think you could be my type too. Why don't you get big and strong like Argo?"

"I think I'll pass." Celestine then turns to us.

"Justin."

"Kurama." Celestine looks over us.

"Why do you too take off your helmets?! How can you even see in them anyways?" Celestine asked.

"We'd rather not." Kurama answered calmly.

"You know that is actually a good question. There are no eye openings." Crocell said looking at us.

"Maybe another time."

'Nice save Kurama.'

"Celestine, how long are you going to keep goofing off? I'll take these people to the chieftain, so go back and continue your mixing." The guard says getting a little irritated.

"Aw, I gotta make more? I'm the one who always gets work like a dog around here..."

"You're always slacking off! If you don't want me to report you, then you'd better get back to work!"

"All right, all right, I'm going!"

"All right. Follow me." The guard said to us.

We were led inside the entrance and into a village that looked a lot like an elf village. I told Kurama to cloak at the next opportunity and it soon arose. With no people around besides the one we were following, Kurama and I used our cloaking technology and looked for an opening to talk. It took a bit of time which was not what we wanted but we found one. We turned off our cloaking and sat down to rest. I let my Pokémon out so they could roam the opening and eat while Kurama and I talked.

"So what's this theory you have?" Kurama asked.

"I think something on this planet has changed the environment and it's only temporary."

"I had that thought too; this civil war and the one before it were started when Doomseeds started to fall. I think this Doomseeds is the planet's way of steadily fixing itself as whatever is making the planet's environment like this power fades." I nodded as Kurama seemed to be on the same page as me.

"I don't know for sure what powers this device but it has to do something with this civil war."

"Yea the fact that two civil war broke out when Doomseed began to fall means that their linked in some way."

"Should I call ODSTs to investigate?" I ask Kurama.

"Not yet. If we don't find out soon then we should call them in." We heard a twig snap. We snapped our heads to the sound to see Crocell standing there. We pull out our pistols and aim at Crocell.


	8. Chapter 8

Crocell put his hands up and walked into the clearing. Umbreon and Absol were alerted and took defensive stances bearing teeth.

"How much did you hear?" Kurama demanded. Crocell was silent for a second before answering.

"All of it." He replied. With that Kurama looked at me.

"We need to leave now. Who knows who else followed him?"

"No one else followed. I told the Princess that I was going to take care of something alone. I noticed that you two were gone. I noticed some weird movement and followed." Crocell explained. There was a tense silence. "What do you guys mean when you said this planet? Just who are you two?" I lowered my weapon after a couple of seconds.

'I may regret this.'

"I will tell you everything on one condition." I said to Crocell in a serious tone.

"Are you sure about this?" Kurama said looking at me with his barrel still pointed at Crocell.

"He was going to find out sooner or later Kurama."

"Name the condition." said Crocell still with his hands up.

"Whatever we tell you here never leaves. You don't tell anyone about this." I stated in a serious tone. There was another few seconds of silence.

"Deal, but I want in on whatever you find out." Crocell said lowering his hands.

"Deal." Kurama said lowering his gun as Crocell joined us. Umbreon and Absol relaxed but kept an eye on Crocell.

"Have a seat." Crocell sat down with us. I took a breath before explaining. "Kurama and I are not from this Planet. We're soldiers from an advanced nation of humans that can travel the stars. We actually came here on an exploration trip. We landed on Highwind Island when it was invaded." Crocell seemed to get the connection now.

"To be honest the reason we're exploring was because we were bored back home." Kurama stated cleaning his pistol. Earning a chuckle from Crocell.

"Why did you guys hide this from us and why keep it hidden?" Crocell asked.

"A lot of things can go wrong when introducing a non-interstellar people to the stage prematurely." I said.

"How so?" Crocell asked again.

"To be honest you're taking this extraordinarily well. Many things people that have not been introduced to the Interstellar stage believe could be contradicted. One of the biggest things would be religion. The reactions from this conclusion can vary between individuals."

"Fear, Panic, Anger, Joy, anything really." Kurama added.

"You're one of few that can be introduced easily since you have a much more open mind." I said to Crocell. Crocell simply shrugged.

"So what all this about a device that changed the environment?" Crocell asked.

"There is no way that the climate of this planet could exist naturally. The proximity of the planet to the star states that this planet should have a very different kind of climate, one much more harsh. In fact, this planet's climate should be more along the line of Sangheilios." I explained.

"Sangheilios?" Crocell asked.

"It's another planet I've been to. It's climate is hotter and has almost no vegetation."

"What do the people do for food?"

"The crops there are heat and drought resistant. The only issue is that the people there forgot how to farm."

"How could you forget that?"

"That's a story for another time." Kurama said putting his pistol back together. "You've heard our talk on the fact that this civil war has something behind it right?"

"Yeah, I don't know what it could be though. Also are you saying that we've been overreacting to the Doomseeds?" Asked Crocell.

"The fact the Doomseeds destroys Kan means that Kan is most likely also an artificial component to this planet." Kurama stated.

"Man this got so complicated." Crocell said scratching his head. ''I never knew I would meet humans not from this world. You are humans right?"

"We are." We both said instantly.

"Come on we need to regroup with the Princess" I said getting to my feet pulling out my Pokeballs and returning Umbreon and Absol. "Remember tell this to no one Crocell."

"I won't, you have my word." We heard people approaching. I grabbed Crocell and ducked back into the trees with Kurama. Mare came into the clearing carrying the remainders of our unit in bindings. "What the hell is going on?" Crocell asked.

"We knew something was off they let us in to be captured, they must think the three of us were captured as well." Kurama stated. As we watched on the Mare left leaving no guards which was odd. Although Celestine stayed behind. We stayed and listened to find out that the Mare knew we were Southern Forces and apparently some people wearing the armor has kidnapped some of the people a month ago. Argo convinced Celestine to let them go and take care of the kidnappers and asked where we were. We then allowed ourselves to be seen as we entered the clearing. The group was surprised to see us. We explained that we were in this clearing before the Mare took them here. We agreed to have the Princess stay here as insurance. I whispered to Crocell saying the Kurama and I will watch over her while hiding in the trees which convinced the others.

I let Umbreon out on the branch and attached a small electric camera on a collar to put on his neck.

"Follow the other but stay out of sight."

"Bre!" Umbreon nodded and took off after the group.


	9. Chapter 9

The group returned a couple hours later with a group of Mare. Celestine as lectured but it seems the Mare are thankful for the aid and the Princess was released. We got back to the chief's hut which Kurama and I stayed outside the door. With no one around Umbreon came out of hiding and jumped into my arms.

"Thank you Umbreon let me take this off of you. "I took the collar of and kissed Umbreon's forehead. "You deserve a good rest." I took out his Pokeball and returned him. Our party came out after a couple minutes. The rest of the party was going to help Celestine get ingredients to make some kind of medicine that she says would reenergize you, but unlike everyone else, we picked up that Celestine had a mischievous motive with this medicine so we didn't go with the others because we wanted no part in it. The group came back hours later to Celestine's house. I heard with my cat hearing that Celestine's 'medicine' was a love potion that did nothing when Argo drank it.

"So glad I didn't get involved in that." I said quietly. Kurama and I decided to sleep outside for the night. We woke up the next day to Celestine's yelling so we entered the house.

"The Northern Forces are marching on Navyblue Marsh!" Celestine exclaimed

"What?!" Juto said in surprise.

"What's the situation?" Zephie asked.

"We Mare have gone out to intercept them, but they're driving us back with their numbers." We didn't hear much more since Kurama and I left the house and ran to the entrance. Sure enough the Northern forces were overwhelming the defenders. I ran towards the Mare that were outnumber 2 on 1 and dive kicked one of the soldiers into a nearby rock. Kurama followed by using his raised whip to cut down the other. I drew my combat knife in a reverse grip as another soldier charged me I parry the strike to my left before jabbing the knife into the exposed neck of the soldier. Kurama and I started to cleave through the enemy with ease as we advanced. With the help of our party and the Mare we manage to push them out and began to head to the enemy camp. As we pushed further into the marsh we met up with a very weird looking mage he was floating, his upper body was huge and looked like a hunchback, he was not at all muscular, and his staff had rings of red energy flowing around it. This guy kinda looked like a cyborg got wrong.

"It's been a long time, Huaren." Zephie said with a bit of hostility.

"I see that you're still personally leading the troops on the front lines, Princess. In that last battle, it looks like our Sentinel suffered a resounding defeat. Say now...Could that mean you uncovered the Sentinels' weak spot." This guy's sound very old and raspy.

"That's right; they're not going to walk over us anymore."

"Perhaps, but the price has been paid by Highwind Island." I did not like the sound of that.

"The island...What have you done to it?" Juto asked getting angry.

"You'll see." The old man laughed.

"Don't you dare lay a hand on the Islanders?" Juto threatened.

'I think it's too late for that.'

"What are you going to do about it; you can't even control your own power!"

'Wait power.' I looked over to Juto but could not sense anything powerful in him.

"Judge for yourself that I'm a failure!" Juto and the others charged the huge cyborg mage. Our five companions quick overrun the mage who retreated and we went to mop up their troops. Zephie ended up surrounded. We got to her right when the Doomseeds began to fall however she was being charged by four enemy soldiers. Kurama and I suddenly felt a strong power and looked to see Juto surrounded by a power of some kind that looked a lot like flames and red marking covered his arms. He suddenly lifted one of the soldiers with his powers once he closed his fist, I could hear the soldier's back break. On close inspection Juto's eyes changed from blue to orange. As the soldier fell he grabbed the soldier with one hand by his face and slammed him into the wall leaving him hanging. The remaining troops tried to run an unlucky man was caught one again by Juto's power. He brought the soldier back to his hand shocking him by the neck. He then brought the soldiers sword up to his other hand and stabbed him through the back. For a second he then went after Zephie but his power then left him on the ground on one knee breathing heavily. The power Kurama and I sensed was gone.

'What the hell was that/' I thought to myself. Juto got up to his feet with his head down.

"J...Juto..."Zephie look scared and concerned.

"Princess..." He replied.

"Do...Do you have any idea what you just did?!" Crocell sounded extremely pissed.

"Calm down Crocell." said Argo.

"You expect me to stay calm after that?! Juto! You turned your sword to the Princess!"

"Y-You're wrong... I was..."

"You're out of your mind!" Crocell yelled.

"Calm down Crocell. Juto just saved my life back there." Zephie said trying to calm down Crocell.

"But he put your life in danger too. It's like he was a totally different person a second ago." Crocell countered.

"But...I didn't do it on purpose."

"Acting like it was nothing huh?" I have never seen Crocell this angry.

"Look, I said i didn't do it on purpose, okay? I don't...want this power either. I'm tired of being treated like a freak." Crocell was at a loss of words.

"I bet you lost control because you were so intensely focused on defeating the Northern Force, the same thing happened to me when I fought Elgar." Zephie explained.

'I really doubt that is why he lost control.' Ghost said.

"What i did was inexcusable, Princess..."

"No Juto. If you hadn't come to my rescue when you did, I would have been in serious trouble."

"That's right. If it weren't for Juto, Zephie might have died." Celestine said defending Juto.

"I need to make this perfectly clear. Juto, I'll admit that you have talent. I definitely have to give you props for your ability. We need somebody like you in the unit. But I have to be honest. Your power isn't normal. It's nothing at all like the power the princess has. You strength...It freaks me out. Just what the hell are you?" Crocell asked.

"Crocell, I believe that is a question we need to wait to ask until Juto gets his memory back." Zephie said coming to Juto's aid.

"I agree. Juto is one of our own." Argo added.

"All right, fine. I don't think he's one of the bad guys either." Crocell admitted finally calming down. With that out of the way Celestine thanked us for helping Cota Mare and the group went back to talk to the chieftain. Kurama and I waited outside as usual. They came back out saying we were leaving through a secret passage so we would be able to get back to Abazet only the Mare could open. So we followed them to the secret gate. I noticed Crocell was starting to hang closer to us ever since the Juto episode. Also it seems that Celestine was coming with us on our journey.

'I have a feeling he wants to talk to you about Juto or something else on his mind away from the others.' Ghost said to me.

'That seems to only be part of it.' I replied.

From what I heard from our group talking incense would be used to open the Undersea gate. We ended up going down and underground cavern to the gate known as the Undersea tunnel. I was really wondering if we were under the sea or if that was just the name. When we reached the gate we learned of a man known as Strass who built something known as La Strada that protected this world from going into a wasteland when we heard that we knew we found our target up what kind of pissed us off was that Crocell knew about it and did not tell us meaning he didn't really trust us fully. I noticed Crocell tense up when we got into the subject knowing the jig was up. However, we still did not know what powered it. Celestine opened the gate with ease and once we walk through the rest of the tunnel we emerged back at Abazet.

Our party began a conversation about the tunnel and Dunan Hill but Kurama and I noticed something. On the road ahead were dead Southern soldiers. We walked away from the party which caught their attention. I began to inspect the body.

"I bet the Northern Forces did this." Crocell said looking down.

"But how'd they get so far into our territory? They had no way through the Undersea Tunnel." Zephie asked.

"Maybe some of the soldier that retreated from the Canyon ended up here." Crocell suggested. I turned the soldier over and what I saw made my blood cold. There were 2 metal spikes imbedded in the soldier. The wound around the spike looked like it was burned with a branding iron. This was not done by humans. This was a Brute calling card. I let the soldier drop and started franticly looking around. I look towards some trees to our right and saw small green lights. I instantly knew they weren't Sangheili since we complete change our weaponry.

"Oh shit. Contact Right!" I yelled pulling out my SMG. Kurama pulls his out with in a second and dived for cover knowing full well that I would not be yelling modern military talk in this environment. As soon as those words left my mouth metal spikes glowing orange and green plasma erupted from the trees to our right. I was forced to deploy my hard light shield since I was in the open road. Luckily the Covenant Remnant troops noticed out armor and focus their fire on us allowing out companions to run into the trees. Kurama started firing off rounds from his SMG into the trees as I backed up off the road. I took cover behind a rock next to Kurama where the others were hiding.

"Where the hell did these guys come from and why the hell are they here?!" Kurama yelled over the noise of the firefight. I let down my hard light shield and took aim with my SMG. A Brute tried crossing the road but was shot down as I unload 5 gauss rounds into him.

"Ghost I need to know how many tangos we've got!" I yelled as my AI companion phased into existence for the first time since we've been here.

'Scanning!" I fired 4 five round burst into the wood across from us killing two Grunts. I pressed the mag release allowing the magazine to hit the ground. I reached into one of the pouches on the chest of my armor and took out another magazine. I reload the new magazine and fired three rounds into another brute trying the charge us.

"I count 8 more hostiles not counting the six killed. They are now tagged on your visor." Ghost announced. Sure enough when i look into the woods i can see 8 red outlines. I counted 4 Grunts, 2 Jackals, and 2 Brutes.

"Do you read any ships in orbit or in the air?'

"Negative."

"Kurama enemy Jackal 225!"

"On It!" Kurama changed his target at the direction i gave him and fired a burst killing his target. "Tango down!" I located the other Jackal and set a round through its head.

"2 Grunts 193!" Kurama poked from his cover at the direction and fired a burst killing the two grunts. I attempted to take aim at another grunt but was forced back into cover as pick needles impacted the rock in front of me. "Needler 214!" Once again Kurama changed targets and killed the cheeky Grunt. I once again peek out of my cover at the last Grunt who as readying a plasma grenade and sent two rounds down range. One impacted the shoulder while the other went through the head. The Brutes now with their entire squad killed made a last ditch charge but was mowed down my out combined SMG fire. There were a couple seconds of silence until Ghost broke it.

"All hostiles eliminated." We let our head lower and we let out a sigh of relief as our adrenaline wore off. I then looked move to Kurama.

"Destroy the weapons and bodies." I said to him.

"On it." He said getting up. I then looked over to our group how looked at us in a mixture of awe and fear. Crocell seemed to be the first to recover.

"Was that the story you were supposed to tell me about later?"

"Yes, part of it."


	10. Chapter 10

Kurama and I finished blowing up the weapons and bodies with C4 and returned to the group. We sat down across from them on the ground. They had a lot of questions on their mind. I let out a sigh preparing myself for basically an interrogation. I let out my Pokémon seeing as how we might as well introduce them as well. "So...Who's first?" I asked.

"What are you two?'" Zephie asked first.

"Justin and I are soldiers from a nation that has the ability of interstellar travel. Basically we are able to travel among the stars." Kurama answered.

"We're humans but we come from a place where humans are much more advanced in technology. The people that just attacked us are known as the Covenant or what remains of them." I added.

"What happened to The Covenant?" Asked Juto.

"Well to start I need to tell you what it was. The Covenant was an alliance of multiple alien races that believe a common religion. They were commanded by a hierarchy known as the Prophets. These alien was our first contact with another intelligent species. Unlike this world, Humanity where we come from was the only sapient race on our home planet. Once we invented interstellar travel we began to colonize other worlds. This went on for hundreds of years but we were soon found by The Covenant. When they found us, the prophet discovered something they don't like."

"What was it?" Zephie asked.

"The Covenant worshiped an ancient alien race known as the Forerunners they thought of them as gods. However when the prophets found Humanity and discovered our race was related to the forerunners, they discovered that their gods were just an old race of aliens. If the rest of the races found out about that fact the prophets would lose their power. So to cover it up they declared a holy war against Humanity."

"T-They declared war just only to hold onto their power?" Crocell asked flabbergasted. I only nodded.

"That war started over thirty years ago. Humanity was unprepared for this kind of threat. We were outnumbered and out gunned. The Covenant held a huge technology advantage over us. As the war went on planet after planet was annihilated. They killed not only soldiers they killed civilians from the elderly to the newborns. They were out to wipe Humanity from existence. What battles we won were too small and too far in between to mean anything. The dozens of colonies filled with people Humanity had before the war were glassed kill all those on the planet. Then they started attacking the core worlds the strongest of our military bases was on a planet know as Reach. The planet was doomed the first ground troops made it to the surface. One military ship survived the fall of Reach. It made a random jump in space and found something that would change the course of the war."

"They found Halo." Kurama finished.

"Halo?" Zephie asked.

"To the Covenant it was seen as the gate way to salvation and godhood. However, we found out the truth from the AIs left by the Forerunners to maintain the Halo. The Covenant searched the depths of the ring and what they found should have been left buried. The found the Flood, a biological parasite that feed on all sentient life. Halo was built to stop the flood Hundreds of thousands of years ago. It was a weapon of last resort. When Halo is fired it fires a pulse that killed a sentient life in the galaxy, killing of the Flood's food supply. The Forerunners fired the rings ending their lives along with everything else. This is where our knowledge goes against almost any religion there is. As years passed the Flood was quarantined inside the rings and with samples of all life in the galaxy the Forerunners' AI repopulated the galaxy and that is where our history begins. The Covenant wanted to fire the rings thinking they were to become gods but in reality the Prophets had another motive. They wanted to fire the rings while they were in a Forerunner ship that they would not be killed when the rings fired. The prophet's race the San'Shyuum wanted complete domination over the galaxy they were willing to kill everything to get it."

"T-That's just sick." Juto stated.

"We were now fighting two enemies. The Covenant and the Flood. The first ring we found was destroyed by one of our soldiers. After that, they invaded the human races home planet known as Earth. One of the prophets led the invasion force but made a jump with in the planet atmosphere and one of our ships followed. I was actually sucked into the portal in my pod that was supposed to land on the planet. I ended up on the second Halo ring. I fought my way to the control center and witnessed something that changed everything. One of the races of the Covenant was betrayed and the entire Covenant turned on them. They were the Sangheili, and they would eventually become our ally against the Covenant they once served. I along with 3 others stopped the second ring from firing but in doing so a fail-safe was activated and the remaining ring could be remote activated by a central control center known as The Ark. We ended up fighting both the Flood and the covenant on the ark. We found our solution to the flood problem. A replacement for the halo that was destroyed was discovered. Myself, the leader of the Sangheili and the soldier from the first Halo activated this ring before it was complete which caused an explosion which annihilated the Flood. Our escape ship however was split in two as the explosion also closed the portal back home. The Sangheili leader and I were on the part that made it back while the other was lost in space. With the Covenant leadership dead. It fell apart into multiple factions. In 28 years of war, 32 billion humans would be killed which is over half of the population. That war ended three years ago and yet we still fight what's left of our enemies since they refuse to give in."

"And to think the war were in now is terrible." Zephie said sadly.

"I can't believe you two went through that." Crocell said.

"That is pretty much our backstory till now, we came to this planet while exploring the galaxy we just so happened to land on Highwind Island as it was attack." Kurama added.

"Don't tell anyone else of what you heard here. Understood?" I asked and received nods from everyone.

"By the way, I wonder what Thel is doing at this moment?" Kurama asked all of a sudden.

"Where the hell did that question come from?" I asked.

"You brought him up in your lecture." Kurama said in a playful voice.

"Point taken."

"Who's Thel?" Celestine asked.

"He is the leader of the Sangheili I mentioned. He also a close friend to me."

"Wait your friend, after what he did to humans?" Juto said confused. I sighed.

"All the Sangheili regret what they did under the prophets' lie. Not everyone holds a grudge Juto."

"You know I never see you use that sword you have." Crocell pointed to my katana. I pulled it out to show them.

"The blade is made out of plasma, I did not want to reveal how advanced we were. But it seems the Covenant fuck that up for us." I said returning the sword back into its sheath.

"How about we end this conversation here, we still need to report back to General Headquarters." Zephie announced which we all agreed. We headed back to Abazet. There we were met by Commander Raud and Count Alex.

"Princess, you're safe! When we lost contact with you, we were worried. We sent out search parties, but there was a report that the Northern Forces had appeared in Navyblue Marsh." Raud explained.

"The path in the canyon was blocked, so we had to temporarily take shelter there. For some reason, our Cubes stopped working right after we entered the marsh, and we weren't able to report in. I apologize for worrying you. We were delayed in returning to base." Zephie explained herself.

"Not at all. All that matters is that you have returned safely.'

"And I return with good news!" Zephie said happily.

"To me, no news could be better than you have returned safely." Said Count Alex. He walked up to Zephie and hugged her. However, she did not return it. "Come now, surely your fiancé is entitled to this much." I could 'see' the false front from him.

'I'm not at all surprised by this. Alex is only helping her so that he can be king.'

Zephie just forms her hands into fist not returning the hug.

"Alex if you're quite finished." Zephie said getting a little angry making Alex back off. "As i said a moment ago, i have something that i want to report, so please call a meeting of the council."

"Very well." With that Alex took his leave.

"I will head to General Headquarters. The rest of you should return to the barracks to get some rest." Zephie said with a happy tone. All of us headed back to the barracks where Kurama and I went straight to the bed upstairs to rest. We were woken up hours later by Crocell.

"Hey we got a meeting downstairs."

"Coming." We got up with no issue and walked down stairs to meet up with everyone. We got down there to hear that the Southern Forces retook Oldfox Canyon while we were gone.

"Well, that's happy news and all, but it happened because we defeated Sion Regral and the Sentinels." Crocell put a huge emphasis on 'we'.

"Yes but the Northern Forces holdouts in the canyon are putting up stiff resistance." Zephie replied.

"I would prefer if they surrendered, but is there a chance this will involve more fighting?" Argo asked.

"Yes. Apparently, there is an aristocrat of some influence among the holdouts."

"Fighting on the front lines even though he's a noble, huh? Doesn't sound much like the officers in our own General Headquarters. he's the enemy, but I almost admire the guy." Said Crocell.

"Let's go to the canyon and ascertain the situation." Zephie announced.

"Roger that! This is gonna be my first mission as part of the Southern forces1 I'm so nervous! My first date, now my first mission!" Celestine said excitedly.

"Date?" Zephie looked confused and my eyes went to Argo.

"Mhm Yeah! Argo showed me around Abazet!"

"She was dragging him the whole time." Crocell clarified.

"Pipe down you." Celestine retorted to Crocell's comment

"Why you little...Don't you think you're getting a little full of yourself?"

"For goodness' sake... First it was Juto and Crocell, and now it's Celestine and Crocell." Zephie said shaking her head. She then noticed Juto with his head down. "Juto is something wrong?"

"No...It's nothing. Nothing at all." He didn't sound convincing. Everyone dropped the subject.

"Once everything's ready, we set out for Oldfox Canyon." Argo announced. Me and Kurama began to move until we were stopped.

"Not you two, I want you here if any more of those aliens are around." Zephie said to us. Kurama and I looked at each other for a second.

"With your permission princess we would like to investigate on that. We could do a lot better if we were searching the planet rather than a city." Zephie thought about it for a second.

"I guess that would be all right." I came up with an idea.

"Princess can I see your wrist?" She looked at me confused before putting out her hand. I went through my inventory and located a communicator and put it on her wrist.

"This is kind of our version of the Cube. You press this button and talk into it. It also has a homing beacon so I know where you are at all times." Zephie looked at it for a second before nodding. Kurama and I picked up out rifles and headed for the door.

"Be careful you two." Argo called out.

"Yeah and kick some alien butt for us." Crocell added. We simply nodded and left the Barracks.

"So, let's get down to business."


	11. Chapter 11

It was 2 hours when Ghost picked up a Covenant transmission. We flew near the location while clocked and landed. The location was in the mountains. There was snow so we changed into winter gear and began our march to our designated shooting position. We set up in a small mountain cave overlooking the forest the transmission was coming from. We were about 700 meter away. I set up my sniper on a rock while Kurama set up a pair of range finders since he was my spotter.

"Looks like a small patrol, about 5 Grunts lead by a brute. They look like their searching for something." Kurama said as he watched over the group as I calibrated my scope.

"Ghost what can you pick up on the radio chatter?" I asked.

"There looking for something all right, what it is I do not know yet. It seems there are only small teams around the planet meaning this is not an invasion but a search team." Ghost responded.

"Anything good coming from this group?"

"Negative, their chatter has no value."

"Wind speed?"

"About 6 KMH" Ghost answered. I finished the calibration on my scope and took aim.

"Ready." I said to Kurama who began to search for a target that would go down unseen. After a few seconds he found one.

"Third Grunt from the left."

"Got him." I took aim and slowed my breathing. I inhaled and then exhaled slowly and slowly pulled the trigger. The sniper made a silent crack that would not be heard 700 meters away. The grunt fell over dead with a puff of blue blood without alerting the others.

"He's down." Kurama confirmed the kill. "Grunt behind the group."

"Got him." I repeated the process and fired. The grunt fell down a ditch out of sight in a splatter of blue. Once again not alerting the rest of the group.

"He's down. Grunt moving away from the group, second on the right."

"Got him." I fired once again and the grunt fell forward as the round went through his neck.

"He's down." The group turned around noticing they were missing bodies. "The grunts."

"Got them." I fired two round in quick succession killing both of the remaining grunts. I then took aim at the Brute and he turned back around to see the dead grunts. That was the last thing he did as a round went through his skull.

"All targets down." Kurama confirmed.

"No more hostiles in a five mile radius." ghost added.

"Alright let's get rid of those weapons and bodies before someone finds them. Ghost continue monitoring that radio chatter let me know if something comes up." I said packing up my sniper.

"Roger." We gathered the bodies and weapons into a pile and rigged it with C4. We got to a safe distance when I heard a voice through my helmet.

"Hello, is anyone there." It was Zephie.

"Yes, what is it Zephie?" I ask.

"I remembered that I never said thank you properly for helping the Southern Forces in its time of need. So...thank you." Zephie said over the radio.

"Don't mention it." After I said that Kurama Detonated the C4.

"Are you guys alright?!" Zephie yelled in panic.

"We're fine we just took care of a Covenant patrol and are getting rid of the evidence."

"All right, take care you two."

"We will. Stop worrying already." With that the conversation was stopped. Kurama came up to me.\

"Since we have no leads let's head back to Abazet." Kurama nodded and we flew back making it back within the hour. We heard our friends also returned so we just hung around while Ghost kept an eye out for Covenant locations. We were just leaning against a wall when we heard a familiar voice.

"Hey!" We look to see Crocell approach us. "I thought you two would be out hunting aliens right now."

"We just got back from eliminating another group. We have no further leads so I have Ghost looking for locations and listening to their communications."

"They lost contact with two units now so they are starting to get that something is up. They are being more careful with communication but we'll find them." Kurama added.

"So do you know what they're here for?" Crocell asked.

"They're searching for something. What troops they have on this planet is all they got with no reinforcements. What we don't know is what their searching for."

"Well the Southern Forces in moving to retake Dunan Hill. If you guys find what they're after you'll tell me right?" Crocell asked.

"We made a deal so of course." I reply.

"Listen I'm sorry I didn't tell you about La Strada. It's just i didn't know what to do when I learned your secret." Crocell said scratching the back of his head.

"It's all right. We told you things we know can contradict famous stories, history, and religion. But, you may want to head out your unit is waiting."

"Right, see you guys later. I'll make sure to bash a few head in for you guys."

"And we'll blow up and few aliens for you." Kurama said with amusement in his voice as Crocell left.

"Justin I picked up another hit. They seem to be getting close to what they are looking for." Ghost gave their position on my visor.

"Got it thanks Ghost. Let's go find out what the Covenant are up too."


	12. Chapter 12

We ended up in a heavy forested area. We quickly found the group and tailed them they stopped in a certain area and began looking around.

'This was the place.'

I motion Kurama to eliminate the group quietly. I sunk up on the group leader and with a quick jerk, snapped his neck. Kurama did the same to a grunt. Kurama and I then used our pistols to kill the rest. Ghost appeared and began to scan the area. We looked around to make sure no one was nearby. After a couple of minutes Ghost came back to us.

"You might want to look at this." We followed ghost to wall of stone. Ghost then scanned the wall and the wall disappeared in and orange light. Behind the wall was something we never expected.

"Is that what I think it is?" Kurama asked.

"Yeah...it is." We were looking at a hidden Forerunner Installation. After some time, Ghost piped up.

"Weird, there are no Forerunner AIs inside the Installation." Kurama and I just continued to scan the area.

"Let's find out what the Covenant want to bad from this Installation." We entered the Installation which still had power. We walked through the hall and were met with nothing. No monitor, no anything. We began to go deeper into the installation until we came up to a big room that had a huge hologram of a ball with tiny symbols. Ghost went up to scan it.

"It's a database." Ghost said turning to us.

"Make a copy of the data on this drive so we can translate it later. I don't want to be here for too long. Is there anything else in here?"

"Negative, this was the last room of the Installation. There may be something with in this data the Covenant wanted or they just got a tip that there was an Installation here." After a few minutes Ghost was done copying the data. "Shit, we got a lot of Covenant contact appearing on radar and are moving in. Radio chatter says they know we're here."

"This was a trap." Kurama said calmly.

"Let's get to the entrance to meet them then." I replied putting the chip back into my inventory. Using our speed we reached the Entrance of the Installation in no time. We took cover behind the wall as Ghost marked all targets. "Shit it's an entire Platoon. They brought everyone here."

"Well this is a fine mess we got ourselves into." Kurama and I started spraying with our SMGs killing five of the incoming Covenant. We reloaded and began to take more precise shots.

"Kurama 89!" Kurama aimed at a brute trying to set up a Plasma Turret but was shot in the face.

"Nice call! Watch out for a second turret!" Kurama yelled as he took down two more grunts. I picked up one of my plasma grenades and primed it.

"Nade Out!" The blue plasma ball soared into a group of brutes and stuck to one of them and exploded killing four of them. 11 of the 45 contact were killed. I then saw a group of Brutes try to set up the second turret in the trees and fired a burst of rounds. Both were killed dropping the turret to the floor. A brute tried to charge Kurama but was met with a three round burst at short range as the dead body skid on the floor away from us. A grunt in the forest was preparing plasma grenades to stick on himself for a suicide charge. I allowed him to arm the grenades and shot him in the head. The five grunts around him tried to run for it but were too slow as the grenades exploded in a brilliant blue light.

'20 down, only 25 left to go.' Suddenly a beam went right by my face.

"Sniper 125!" Kurama turned the corner and with a excellent aimed shot, took down the jackal. Kurama ducked back into cover as a explosion hit the wall.

"Bruteshot 115!" Kurama yelled. I turned the corner and fire and three round burst all hitting the head.

"He's down!" I then started to notice that the enemy was clumping up on the sides. I signaled Kurama to throw a grenade down his side while i did mine. At the same time we threw plasma grenades on our side killing 11 more enemies. The remaining brutes dropped their weapons in a rage and went berserk. They charged at us only to be mowed down by our SMG fire. When we thought things were over we heard heavy footsteps. We look to see a pair of biological tanks.

"Hunters!" we run from the entrance to escape their fuel rod cannons. Kurama rushed around the left side to close the distance of one of the hunters. As he got within striking range the hunter attempted to crush him with his shield. Kurama jumped over it and onto the hunters back. He armed a plasma grenade and stuck it to the unarmored back of the hunter. He jumped away as the hunter blew up in an orange bloody gore. I was distracting the other Hunter as Kurama does the same thing. Right before the Hunter could let off another round from his fuel rod canon it also exploded. There was a silence between us for a second.

"Well...I think were done with them." I said regain my breath.

"I think we are."


	13. Chapter 13

It took us multiple days to clear everything and to once again hide the Forerunner Installation. We have confirmed that the remainder of the Covenant forces on the planet were the once that attempted to ambush us at the installation. When we returned from the forest back to Abazet we learned that the Counter-Sentinel Unit was sent to Dunan Hill. So we took the undersea tunnel and arrived there in a couple of hours. The field showed signs of a bloody battle but it seems that something was going on at the fortress at the top of the hill. He hurried up the hill to find our allies standing in front of the fort looking up at a man we've have never seen before and the one known as Elgar. There were also two new additions to our allies' unit.

"I command you; eliminate everyone around you except the Princess!" I felt the same power Juto had form in the unidentified man. He threw his hand out to Juto and suddenly the same power signature arose in Juto. Juto suddenly drew his blade and charged Crocell. He slashed at Crocell who managed just to block it but was pushed back a couple feet.

"What do you think you're doing?!" asked Crocell.

"It's moving...on its own!" Juto was struggling to fight his own body.

"Juto!" Zephie tried to rush to his aid but Elgar jumped down and intercepted her and put his blade to her throat.

"What's happening to ME?!" Juto asked still trying to regain control.

"Your mission is to kill everyone except for the Princess. Obey your Master's order. This was the first time I heard the man speak but something was off. He sounded exactly like Juto.

"What are you talking about?!" Juto was confused and panicking. "Master...? What's that?!" Juto managed to force his body to spin with that momentum he let his sword go and launched right at Elgar's face. The blade took off the glasses the worked like a mask. Everyone was shocked. Elgar had the same face as Juto.

'A twin? No they would have at the least slightly different voices. What the hell?'

"They do you pretend not to know? We are beings who obey no one but our Master. Have you forgotten? But you, you showed yourself to be defective. You attempted to kill the Princess." Elgar said smirking.

'Beings? They're not human?'

"I don't believe it...That was..." Zephie was looked completely in shock.

"You must not allow her to be killed. That order takes priority over all others. You absolutely must not allow her to die...You remember that command, don't you? Elgar."

'A second Elgar? What the hell is going on.'

'I think the data I'm translating might have something that could explain what's going on.' Ghost piped up.

"You're saying that I'm Elgar?! Get real! You're wrong that can't be possible!"

"Have you forgotten your mission?" He once again attempted to force Juto to act. Juto clutched his head in pain.

"Juto, You're...You're really Elgar?" Argo look betrayed.

"No I'm..." Juto said through gritted teeth as he tried to fight his own body once again.

"You deceived us..." Zephie looked the most betrayed out of everyone.

"You got to believe me! I don't know anything, Honest!" Juto screamed.

"They try to give us an explanation." Zephie said with a hostile tone.

"If you want to see the Princess, come to Belfort. You will see something most interesting." said Elgar.

"Princess Rzephillda!" One of the new additions tried to move towards the Princess being held hostage. She was the second shortest of the group. She had short blonde hair and was wearing something like a black dress. She had a backpack on that carried two short swords.

"If you don't want the Princess to be hurt, I suggest you stay where you are." Elgar threatened the girl who stopped in her tracks.

"Zephie... I can't..." Juto tried to speak.

"First. I thought I gave you an order." The unidentified man once again thrusted his hand towards Juto. A ring appeared around Juto as he screamed in pain. A flash of light appeared blinding everyone. Juto now had the same appearance from when he lost control in Cota Mera. He used his power to call back his sword and charged our allies. As the fight began Kurama was about to move in to assist but I stopped him.

"Wait, we have not been noticed yet. We have no clue what's going on and us getting involved will likely end up with Juto killed. We need to question him." Kurama nodded and we maintained our position. The unknown man and Elgar took Zephie away as the fight started. After some time of intense fighting Juto managed to regain control. Crocell walked up to him a punched him in the face knocking Juto to the ground.

"You can't explain yourself, can you?" Crocell was understandably pissed. Celestine got between the two and tried to hold Crocell back.

"Wait!"

"Stand aside. This bastard is a traitor!" Crocell said trying to get passed her.

"Calm down, Crocell!" Argo commanded. With that Crocell backed off and Juto got back on his feet.

"The first time I saw you, I sensed that I had met you before somewhere. I was once nearly killed by you. Perhaps I instinctively sensed you were Elgar." The small blonde girl said.

"Tell us the truth, who are you? Why do you have the same face as Elgar?" Crocell demanded.

"I don't know, I'm just as confused as you are. Why is there someone else with the same face as me? But I was the 'Elgar the Regicide' that once tried to kill Zephie. That's...That's the one thing that is certain. So if you want revenge, take it. I'm the Southern Forces' mortal enemy, right?" Juto eyes were filled with regret and sorrow.

"Yes, I swore to myself that I would settle the score the next time we met. I swore that I would not be beaten by Elgar again." The blonde girl sounded like she wanted to kill Juto right there.

"Hey wait a minute. Guys... Juto has always been our friend! Just because he used to be Elgar doesn't mean..." Celestine tried to defend Juto.

"Elgar has murdered countless innocent people over the years. He also conducted purges of hostile nobles on Schuenzeit's orders prior to the outbreak of the civil war. Begging your pardon, but just because Juto lost his memory does not erase Elgar's evil deeds." The small girl explained.

"Then we'd be just like him! Juto saved our lives tons of times, hasn't he? Even if Juto use to be Elgar, that doesn't make everything he did a lie!" I had to give props to Celestine for being brave enough to be the only one sticking with Juto. Her words left the small girl speechless. "We've all been saved by Juto lots of times. Same with Zephie. If it weren't for Juto, we couldn't have beaten the Northern Forces." Celestine continued.

"We missed a lot in the last few days." Kurama said quietly.

"Of course, I...I hate Elgar too. lots of Mare have been killed by him. But we've always accepted Juto exactly as he was. If we hadn't found out that he was Elgar, that wouldn't have changed right? Frankly, I just can't see the Juto I know as being Elgar." The Mare girl was brave indeed. There was a moment of silence.

"Juto, your memory is starting to come back, yes? Did you remember what happened on that day? The day you fought so fiercely against Princess Rzephillda?" The blonde asked.

'It was...Schuzeit's orders. Hunt you down and eliminate the person, who stole information on the Sentinels...At the time, I was under orders to not allow the Princess to be killed. But Zephie stepped between us, and it all happened too quickly for me to react. That's how I became the Elgar that tried to kill Zephie. This also meant that i had disobeyed Schuenzeit's...Master's...orders. My disobedience triggered a mental breakdown, and I lost my memory." Juto explained.

"You mustn't allow Princess Rzephillda to be killed? Schueneit said that? That makes no sense." The girl was confused.

"Well... I don't really know. It was just Master's command."

"Gee, you don't say? And? Are you saying you decided to obey your orders again and handed over the Princess accordingly?' Crocell accused.

"Sorry. I...I do have memories of killing many Southern Forces soldiers. Plus, I tried to kill both Zephie and Rue. If you say you want revenge...I won't put up a fight. But, would you give me a little time? I know you might not trust me. But i have to do this! I want to rescue Zephie personally. I need to make amends to her."

"Juto...Zephie has always hated Elgar too." Celestine pointed out sadly.

"Whaaa...? This is no good! Friend fighting amongst each other is outrageous!" The second addition finally spoke. He was smaller than Rue and was a bipedal bird that had blue feathers. His outfit made him look like an inventor.

"There is no way we can trust you, not when you are Schenziet's lackey." commented Argo.

"He's right. What if you fall under his control again? You expect us to trust you in spite of everything and head off to save the Princess?" Crocell asked.

"If that happens...Kill me." That took Crocell by surprise. "If I can't disobey his orders and fall under his control again, I want you to kill me."

"No, don't say that! We're friends!" Celestine tried to reason with Juto.

"No, if that ever happens, then I'll be your enemy. I'm... I'm just considering the worst case scenario. Don't trust me you guys. I...I can't trust myself." All doubts i had with Juto disappeared by now.

"Son of a...Then...Then just don't let that bastard control you!" Crocell seemed to have opened up quite a bit to Juto.

"I wish I could.. But the curse... the seal of the Blood Pact can't be broken."

"I understand. We'll do that. If i ever determine that you are acting against out interest, I will put you down without hesitation. It may sound cruel and unfeeling, but the safety of Princess Rzephillda's life means far more to me that yours does." Rue answered with her cold voice. She is most likely an assassin.

"Sure, I'm fine with that." Juto nodded

"But we will pray that, if all possible, it never comes down to that. You've saved our lives countless times. As Celestine says, even if you are Elgar, it does not make Juto cease to exist. I want to believe in you for a little longer." Said Argo

"Thank you." Juto sighed.

"Now." I say to Kurama. We were about to let our presence be known when Rue suddenly turned around and threw a knife at us. I caught it with ease.

"Identify yourselves!" she demanded. The rest of the group turned to see us.

"Justin, Kurama." Juto said surprised to see us.

"How long have you guys been here?" Crocell asked.

"We've been here ever since Juto's first strike." Kurama said calmly.

"So you two heard everything." Juto said a bit depressed.

"Hey mate, our opinion of you has not changed. Believe me, we seen much worst and weirder too." I say to Juto. "Also we found what our Covenant friends were looking for."

"What was it?" Crocell asked. Rue looked rather confused at what was going on.

"They were looking for a hidden Forerunner Installation located on this planet. We found it while trailing one of their groups." Kurama explained.

"What is an Installation and what did they want with it?" Juto asked.

"An Installation can be a lot of things. The Halo rings were considered Installations. We can say that their pretty much ruins. What they wanted was what was inside the Installation. We took out the initial search party and discovered the secret entrance. We searched the entire Installation to find out that it had a huge database. We do not know if that was their target or they were just tipped of about one being here. I copied the database and Ghost is currently translating it. We ended up being ambushed by the rest of the Covenant Troops as we left the Installation. We managed to take them out without iss-." There was a sudden energy crack in the air and I suddenly felt my neck jerk.

Everything seemed to slow down as i began to fall sideways to the ground. Alarms started going off in my helmet as a small diagram of a human showed up. The neck area of the diagram was blinking red and to the side was red letters that spelled out 'Wounded.'


	14. Chapter 14

(3rd Person POV)

A beam of light suddenly went into the right side of Justin's neck and a spray of blood hit the floor. He dropped sideways to the ground and ended up on his back with both of his hand on the wound.

"Justin!" Kurama, Crocell and Juto yelled. Kurama snapped to the source of the shot and began to fire with his SMG. A jackal sprung from cover and tried to make a run for it. Crocell charged a fireball in his hand and launch it at the retreating jackal. It connected with its back and the Jackal dropped to the ground dead. Kurama seeing the threat neutralized ran over to Justin who was still on the ground holding his neck. Blood was leaking on the ground and was starting to form a puddle. The beam rifle did not go completely through Justin's neck thanks to his neck being protected by his armor. Justin could be heard choking as the other rushed over. Kurama quickly went into his med kit and pulled out a green canister. He pulled the pin out and moved Justin's hand away from the wound. He stuck the nozzle in and pressed down on the lever. White foam began to fill the wound. Once the wound was filled he took out a bandage and put it over Justin's neck. Kurama then pulled out a white and blue syringe and handed it to Crocell.

"Jam that into his right thigh and press on the top now." Kurama ordered. Crocell nodded and did what he was told. While he did that Kurama took out a blood bag that was labeled and took Justin's right arm. He repeatedly hit the area below the elbow to reveal his vein. Once he found it he stuck the IV in and blood began to pour from the blood bag in Justin's body. "We have to get him out of the open. There might be more stragglers. Is there a camp or a cave of some kind nearby?"

"The Southern army camp is not far from here." Rue said in her usual cold voice. Kurama nodded.

"Ghost, I need a stretcher." One formed next to him. "I need someone to help me move him." Crocell nodded and helped Kurama put Justin and the stretcher and lifted it up on the other side. The group began to move back away from Dunan Hill.

"Is he going to be OK?" Celestine asked in concern.

"He's stable for now. I can't do much more here." Kurama replied. They reach the camp and laid Justin down on a table in one of the tents. "I need you to leave so I can work." The group doesn't say anything and leave the tent.

"Damn those alien bastards." Crocell cursed once the group left the tent. Crocell was the closest to the off worlders. He may not have known them for long, but he considered them some of his closest friends. Justin and Kurama seemed to understand Crocell's personality the best and know how to interact with him. When they first met Justin even joked with him while he messed with Juto.

"Will someone explain to me who those two are and what the is happening?" Rue asked.

"It's a long story so you better take a seat." Crocell replied. The group relayed what they knew about Justin and Kurama to Rue and told her that they have been helping the unit while she was gone. By the time they were done explaining things, Kurama emerged from the tent.

"What is Justin's condition?" Argo asked.

"His life is no longer in danger. He is currently resting inside. I do not know when he will wake up. If I hadn't treated him so quickly, he would be in worst shape or even dead. I have to admit that the armor he designed was also a factor of saving his life. Unlike much other armor, Justin designed his armors with a material that is resistance to plasma and includes protection to the neck. The armor took most of the impact. It that neck piece was not there the plasma round would have gone straight through his neck and he would have blead out."

"What kind of weapon was that?" Crocell asked still with anger in his voice.

"That was a Covenant Beam Rifle. It's infamous to humans since even the most advance soldier are easily killed by it. The weapon goes through energy shields like butter and continues to punch through infantry armor. The snipers we use can do the same through a wall."

"I realize that one of your comrades has been injured but we still need to move on and rescue Princess Rzephillda." Rue interrupted. The rest of the group was about to argue when Kurama piped up.

"You can go on ahead. I have to keep an eye on Justin to make sure his condition doesn't worsen. Besides, our military never leaves a man behind and many people close to him would kill me if I left him in this condition." The rest of the group understand and went north.

Three days have passed since Justin was shot in the neck by a covenant stragglers. Kurama was currently reading a book he brought with him inside the tent Justin was resting in. Umbreon and Absol were sleeping next to their fallen trainer. They had busted out of their balls after Kurama was finished treating Justin. Things have been silent for the last three days since the Southern forces left leaving only the off-worlders. The only sound that was made was Umbreon and Absol sleeping soundly and the occasional flip of a page. Another sound suddenly broke the silence, it was a groan. Umbreon and Absol woke up at the noise. When the two realized that the groan came from their trainer the shot up.

"Bre!" Umbreon called out to Kurama who put his book down and walked over.

(POV Change)

I groaned as I began to regain consciousness. I heard a familiar cry and tried to open my eyes. I slowly open them to see Umbreon and Absol looking down at me. After a second, Kurama came into my line of sight.

"Glad to see you waking up. You gave everyone quite a scare." He said to me.

"Where am I?" I said in a raspy voice still feeling the pain in my neck.

"Don't talk; we're in a tent left by the Southern Forces. You been out for three days, you were hit by a jackal that most likely was separated from the search groups on the planet."

'Ghost, can you talk for me please?' I ask in my head.

'Of course.' Ghost appeared in front of Kurama.

'Ask him where the others went.' Ghost relayed the question.

"Telepathy, nice little trick. I told the others to go on ahead of us. They went to go save the Princess."

"Might I add that I have finished translating the data from the Installation." Said Ghost.

'Give the data to Kurama, let him research it.' Ghost relayed my wish and Kurama nods in reply. Kurama takes the chip from Ghost and uploads the data on a holo-tablet.

"You get some rest I'll tell you if I find something." I make a weak salute and Kurama moves back to his spot to study the data. Umbreon and Absol nuzzle me before lying back down and drifting to sleep. I close my eyes and do the same. A couple of hours later Kurama gently woke me up.

"I found out why we did not find a monitor at the Installation. It has been researching the planet for a long time. What it found, you are not going to like." I motion him to continue. "First how Sentinels are made. Their made from crossbreeding between Humans and multiple different monsters. Basically they sacrifice a human and merge it with monsters. Next is the reason behind this war and others before it. We were correct that the wars are connected. Every time, Doomseeds fell before the war and they stop after the war. The way the Doomseeds were stopped was by sacrificing someone known as the 'Magna Carta', sound familiar? It even goes on to say who the current Magna Carta is. The current one is the Princess. Schenzeit knew all about this and is planning to sacrifice her to keep the planet's climate the way it is. He took over the throne not for the power, but to save the planet from changing. This planet's artificial climate was created and maintain by Kan which by the sacrifice of the Magna Carta will replenish the Kan. In my opinion this planet's good climate was created and maintained by blood." Kurama's kept his neutral face but i can see a small spark of anger forming in his eyes. I was the same way.

'Ghost tell him to give me a senzu bean.' I ordered. Ghost relayed it. Kurama looks to me.

"I hope you realize trying to swallow a senzu been will be excruciatingly painful in your condition.' I gave him a look that would kill lesser men. He got up and produced a small bag. He took out a senzu bean and held it to me. I took it and chew it. I tried to swallow the bean to meet a lot of pain and I winced. I tried again and ignored the pain and forced the bean down. After a second all my pain was gone and I felt rejuvenated. I sat up and got of the make-shift bed.

"Ghost call for the nearest fleet." I ordered. It takes a second but a voice comes through my helmet.

"This is The Arbiter of the Shadow of Intent."

"Thel, move your fleet to these coordinates. I explain the situation when you arrive." I ordered over the radio.

"Understood, we will arrive shortly."

"Also prepare a group of ODSTs for a combat drop."


	15. Chapter 15

We rushed to Belfort which was the capital of the country. Thel arrived with his fleet once we reached the outskirts. I explained to him what we found and the situation. Once he heard the story he warned us that trying to save the Princess will likely make us an enemy of the world seeing as how the people are more than likely willing to kill her to stop the Doomseeds. I told him that I understood but he did agree that he would not want to live on a planet that needed so much blood just to keep its climate for as a temporary fix. He even joined the ODSTs in the drop to join us. We were on the outskirts making a plan on a hologram of the city thanks to Ghost.

"Alright from Ghost's recon there will be an announcement made from this square. There was a rumor that a cease fire was negotiated and the Princess will be there as well. From what we learned, Schenziet will try to sacrifice her there in that square. Our job is to make sure that does not happen. 1st squad will set up on a roof west of the square and will provide over watch. 2nd squad will be on the east of the square, your job is to assault the square when the signal is given and regroup with us once we secure the Princess. Thel you will be with me and Kurama while cloaked, once the signal is given you'll reveal yourself and help us rescue the Princess. 1st squad will regroup with us at the extraction point, any questions?" No one spoke up. "Let's get it done." With that everyone stood up and split up. Kurama, Thel, and I moved through the streets towards the square. When we reached the location, a large crowd of civilians had gathered. We noticed our allies were there as well since they stood out.

"Squads report, in." I say over my radio.

"Squad 1 in position."

"Squad 2 ready for action."

"Hold position until you see the signal." We entered the square to see Zephie suspended in the air by the same power Schenziet used.

"I am sure you war surprised at the sight of the opposing leaders coming together in one place." Zchuenzeit said. I was able to get a good look at him now. He had black hair and beard kind of like Alex. He wore a white and gold sleeveless tunic and had silver armor on his arms. Next to him was Count Alex. "Count Alex, Supreme Commander of the Southern Forces, and I, Schuenzeit, will now issue a joint statement regarding cessation of hostilities in this civil war."

'So Alex did betray Zephie. Or he was never on her side and was playing her.'

"Since the horror of the Great Carta War, we have lived under the watchful eye of La Strada, received its blessing, and sung of 1,000 years if prosperity in our land. But, all of that is now about to become the fantastic tale of a fleeting dream. Catastrophe is about to visit us again! I say this because problems have arisen in the circulation of Kan, the source of our world's strength. These are the Doomseeds, the terrible seeds of misfortune which rain down upon us! However, we know of a means by which that catastrophe may be averted. That means is the miracle that is the Magna Carta! It is the single light which will cleanse the world. And after exerting myself to the breaking point in search of this light, I found it at long last! The Magna Carta that will save the world is none other than Princess Rzephillda!" I armed a flare gun getting ready to set off the signal.

"You son of a bitch... what are you getting at?" I heard Crocell say with my hearing.

"I am sure there are some among you who bristle with indignation at the country's princess put on display and treated like a common criminal. However, I would like to inform you of a terrible truth. You will learn how she deceived the people with two faces, one hidden behind a mask of lies. Originally, Magna Carta referred to one possessing enormous strength of Kan. With this energy, it is possible to save this world, which is decaying due to the Doomseeds, just as the hero Strass did. In short. The Magna Carta offers himself up as a sacrifice to save the world! These thousand years of splendor were built upon the Magna Carta's noble sacrifice. The Magna Carta's sacrifice gives strength to Lanzheim, which groans as it is eaten away by the Doomseeds. When i learned this truth, I informed the late queen. But Her Majesty refused, unable to sacrifice her daughter, and then made me out as a traitor, and tried to have me killed."

'No shit, a parent protects their child at all cost,'

"A choice was thrust upon me. Do I fight for Lanzheim, or do I stand idly and watch Lanzheim's downfall? I was forced by necessity to make this difficult decision. I would fight for Lanzheim! I had no choice but to launch a civil war in order to remove the royal family. Compared to the suffering of masses, tormenter by the calamity falling from the sky, my own anguish was as nothing. Of course, I begged the Princess afterwards, 'Please, will you do as generations of Magna Cartas have done and sacrifice yourself to save the world?' However, she refused my plea. Then, concealing the truth, she deceived Count Alex and formed the Southern Forces."

'I believe that part is a political lie.' Ghost said in my head.

"Making me out to be the very personification of evil, she guided the course of the civil war. Everyone holds his own life dear. But she, as the next Queen of Lanzheim, has a duty to protect the country and her people. Do you all believe that with the end of the war, the seedfall will end, just as it once did?! I say to you no! The calamity will continue to smolder. Without the sacrifice of the Magna Carta, the world cannot be saved. Slowly but steadily, this world is headed towards destruction! The very existence of our world is threatened by the Princess' selfish actions. The very being meant to save this world had become instead the instrument to its destruction. The noble sacrifices of Magna Cartas past must not be in vain!" The people in the square started to turn on Zephie.

"The princess is not worthy of the glorious name handed down to her from the great hero Strass. Turning her back on the cries of grief and anguish, she has ushered in a disastrous war, all for the sake of long as she remain alive, the Doomseeds will continue to rain down on Lanzheim. And beyond that lies nothing but utter destruction." The crowd was now yelling for the death of Zephie. Crocell looked like he was about to kill the crowd. Juto was trying to keep him calm. "The road that brought us here has been a long and painful one. In order to protect Lanzheim and her people, I felt that I must tell all of you the truth entirely, for this is no time for humans to be fighting one another."

"He's a good speaker for a human." Thel said next to me still cloaked.

"To that end, I agreed to meet Count Alex and revealed to him the Princess' true nature. Fighting amongst ourselves has now become meaningless. Even the horror of the Doomseeds will be extinguished soon. I now offer a proposal to you all! I say we force this Princess who has refused her noble duty and caused a war to fulfill the Magna Carta's original role! Now, make your choice! Will you live in a dying world, smothered by Doomseeds? Or will you return to a world of plenty? Lift your voices high. Shout, 'Paradise is ours to take!' Shout, 'Sacrifice the Princess!" The crowd rallied to the call. Our allies drew their weapons. The opposition leaders told the people to evaluate the square. The people did just that and the soldiers around the podium charged our allies.

'Now!' I aimed the flare gun in the air and pulled the trigger. A blue flare screamed into the air alarming everyone in the square. Our allies were surprised to see Kurama and I. Suddenly both ODST squads revealed themselves and open fired. Gunfire erupted in the square and enemy troops started to drop left and right.

"Kurama, Thel with me!" Thel dropped his cloaking and both of them followed as I charged the podium.

"What the hell are these things?!" Alex yelled. Juto was the closest to the podium and went after the platform that held Zephie. Schuenzeit tried to make him obey but Juto kept moving. Seeing as how controlling Juto was not working no matter how hard he tried Schuenzeit started the sacrifice ritual. Zephie screamed in pain. Juto surrounded by a blue flame jumped and stabbed the bottom of the platform destroying the process and allowing the princess to fall down into his arms. Alex and Schuenzeit teleported away seeing the sacrifice spoiled. Fighting dragged on as we continued towards Juto who was talking to an unhappy Juto back on her feet. He got to the platform in seconds.

"We're getting you out of here." I heard Juto say. I come up and put a hand on Juto shoulder.

"We need to go now!" A soldier charged me but was intercepted by Thel's energy sword. Juto followed us as we started to leave the square. Seeing the Princess rescued the rest of our allies and Squad 2 regrouped with us. Crocell caught up next to me.

"How the hell are you up and about?!" Crocell asked.

"Question for another time Crocell. Squad 1 we're moving to extraction!" I say on my radio.

"Roger that, packing up and moving out."

"Umm, who is that?" Juto asked pointing to Thel.

"That would be The Arbiter we told you about." Kurama replied.

"Justin what happened that would make you indisposed." Thel asked me.

'Oh no, protective Sangheili inbound.'

"Nothing happened!" I replied.

"He was shot in the neck by a jackal with a Beam Rifle." Kurama answered.

"Really." Thel said looking back to me like he was about to lecture me.

"Damn you Kurama!" I yell to Kurama who chuckled a bit.

"Wow, He's to you like Rue is to the Princess." Crocell said jokingly. Ghost revealed himself next to me.

"Enemy squad to the left of the next corner." All the off-worlders aimed to the left and the rounded the corner. Within two seconds, the five enemies spotted were gunned down. We reached the outskirts of the city and the extraction point in twenty minutes. The ODST made a perimeter as I took out a green flare. I lit the flare and threw it to the ground. Squad 1 regrouped with us and I heard a voice in my helmet."

"This is Shadow 1. We see your flare. ETA in 30 seconds." Shortly the roar of engines could be heard overhead. Our allies looked up to see an aircraft coming it. It was a Valkyrie Dropship. The dropship descended near the flare and landed. In the doors was a gunner manning a Plasma Accelerator. I turn to our allies.

"Get on board we're leaving!" They don't say anything but start boarding. Once they were on board the rest of us get on and then takes off. The gunners retract their guns and the side doors close.

"Where are we going?" Celestine asked.

"To our ship human." Thel responded in his seat.

"I'm not a human, I'm a Mare!" She responded. Thel looks at me for confirmation which i nod.

"My apologies."

"Wait does that mean we are leaving our world." Crocell asked

"We are going to our fleet that orbits the planet. We are now enemies of the world, so what better place to strategized than off the planet." Kurama replied

"May I ask you all something?" Zephie asked looking around at the off-worlders.

"What is it?" Thel replied.

"Who exactly are Justin and Kurama? For an entire fleet to be ordered to help them, they must be important." Thel looked to Kurama.

"They know that you two are not from the planet but have yet to tell them who you are?"

"When they hear it they'll know why." Kurama turned to Zephie and for the first time reached for his helmet and with a hiss took it off. They got their first look at the very young man with long red hair and green eyes. "Allow me to introduce myself fully. I'm Kurama Minamino, Major General of the Galette Imperial Military."

"General?" Zephie asked.

"That is correct." The others now look to me. I sigh and reach for my helmet. With a his i take it off and open my eyes. They are surprised the most by me. They saw a younger blue haired gold eyed teen with black cat ears.

"I thought you said you were human?" Argo stated.

"I am, where we are from some humans are born with different animal characteristics. Anyway, I'm Justin Date, Supreme Commander of the Gallete Imperial Military and Emperor of Galette."

"Emperor?!" Every single one of our allies looked completely shocked.

"Also former Major General for the UNSC." Kurama added.

"Wow, I would have never expected you two to be such important figures. Sure maybe officers but a General and a Emperor." Crocell said in shock.

"Just wait till we get back to the ship." one of the ODST said.

"Thel here is The Arbiter, he is the commander of the Sangheili troops in the Galette military and the Governor of Sangheilios. Justin is his only superior." Kurama pointed out.

"Hold on, things are about to get bumpy." The ship started to shake.

"What's happening?" Juto asked getting a little worried.

"We're exiting the planet's atmosphere; there is no need to worry. Once were out it will be a smooth ride." Kurama replied. After a minute the shaking stopped.

"By the way Kurama." I said.

"Hmm?"

"You know I'm going to get payback right?" Kurama face paled.

"Oh no." I smirk as he knew what I planned on doing.

"Sir, we are nearing the fleet." I got up from my seat and headed to the cockpit. Kurama turned to our allies.

"If you look out the window you may see an impressive sight." They did so and their jaws dropped. They saw the blackness of space and the beautiful sight of their planet. Not only that they saw a fleet of 15 ship colored silver. The ship had a beautiful design and looked like a piece of art rather than a warship. The ship came in all shapes and sizes. They also saw we were heading for the biggest one to saw the least was gigantic. The mere sight of it made them wonder how the hell was something like that built and was able to fly. The sight of the Shadow of Intent only grew more impressive as they got closer. Within minutes, the ship entered the hanger and landed.

"Welcome to the Shadow of Intent." The pilot announced.


	16. Chapter 16

The dropship doors open and the ODST began to pile out. Kurama exits and then our allies follow . I'm the last to leave the ship. Our group looked around in amazement at the hanger. All over the place were vehicles of all kinds. Also there were Humans with cat ears and tail in many different uniforms as well as other Sangheili.

"Come, we need to meet up with our officers to discuss what to do next." Thel announced leading us around the ship. Our group just could not get over the technology they were seeing. I noticed that Juto seemed to be in a weak state and he is only getting weaker. I decided to keep an eye on him. We reached the bridge after a couple of minutes due to the ship being so large. Once we got to the bridge, Human and Sangheili officers were waiting patiently around a hologram table.

"Attention on deck!" One of the officers said and everyone in the bridge saluted. It was aimed at Kurama, Thel and I.

"At ease." I say after a second and our group moved to the table. I introduced our allies to the officers present. "So what's the situation?"

"We have recon on the ground; they have yet to find Schuenzeit. They also report that the only place we could land without alerting our enemy would be in a place known as Cota Mare."

"That's where we sent Nix." said Juto.

"Nix?" I ask.

"He is the researcher responsible for Elgar and for me." Juto responded. I nod in return.

"Unfortunately we have no way to track our enemy since they use the planet's energy known as Kan to communicate." I began to think for a second, trying to think of how to approach our current situation. "We need to find La Strada, from the info I gathered from the Forerunner Installation, La Strada is a battleship of some kind. Captain N'theha that will be your responsibility."

"It will be done." The mid-aged Sangheili responded by putting one arm over his chest and bowing his head. It was the Sangheili version of a salute. N'theha 'Ludome was an experience shipmaster. He wore the standard silver armor and was a bit smaller than Thel. He was the Captain of one of the Frigates in the fleet.

"Major Jeannin, get a detachment of marines ready to be transported to the surface. Thel gather some of your best Sangheili as well." They both nodded in reply. Nathan Jeannin was a young man in his mid-twenties. He had black hair that was the same length as mine and blue eyes. His armor was standard issue for Marines but had the addition of oak leaves on his shoulder armor. He used to be a knight in Galette but joined the Imperial military as a Marine and went through officer school. This would be his first command. "The rest will wait on standby until this situation develops. Once we find out where La Strada is, it will likely be heavily guards. So we'll build an FOB nearby and will plan out how to storm the ship and eliminate any opposition. Any question?" The major spoke up.

"Are we taking any ground vehicles?"

"Bring along a few warthogs with turrets along with enough transport for the detachment." He nodded. No one else spoke up. "Let's head out for Cota Mera." The ship was in a buzz as Marines that were chosen for the detachment were getting their gear on and prepare their vehicles. It took about twenty minutes for everyone to be ready. Kurama, Thel, and I along with our allies took one transport and the rest of the detachment which was around 30 men were spread out in others. Juto while on the Valkyrie was having a serious problem. He was in a great deal of pain and was struggling to keep awake.

"Hey, hang in there." Crocell said in concern. It was minutes later when we were seconds out from Cota Mera when Juto collapsed. The noise of our arrival startled the Mare as a crowd formed Our allies pulled Juto out of the craft and to the ground in the center of the village.

"What is the cause of this commotion?" A commanding voice rang out. A Mare with dark pink hair and a decorative outfit appeared from the crowd followed by a man in a white and red coat. He short brown hair and a stubble beard. The man also wore glasses.

'She must be the Chief and He must be Nix.'

"Chief, it'll take too long to explain! Let's just say Juto is in bad shape and we have ro treat him right away!" Celestine answered. As she was saying that I opened Juto shirt to see what was causing so much pain. What i found was not at all pretty. His torso was covered in burns.

"E-El? I mean, Juto?! How in the world was he hurt so badly?" Nix asked.

"Ah! You already made it here huh?" Celestine commented.

"Yes, thanks to your help, I was able to reach Cota Mare safely in one piece...Did something happen to Juto? Wait these wounds are? Did he disobey a command from Schuenzeit?"

"Wait...How could you possibly know that?" Zephie asked.

"You see they're designed to...well...catch fire if they disobey their Master's orders. Anyway, I will examine him." We then proceeded to move Juto in Celestine's house and set him on the couch. We explained to the Chief about the soldiers, they were allowed to stay outside the village which we agreed to and all supplies were unloaded outside the village.

"To bend the will of the Sentinel he created to his own, the Master used the simplest and most reliable of methods. And that was pain. Now, Sentinels lack the very concept of defiance due to their low intelligence, so there is no need to use pain on them. However, humanoid Sentinels are another matter entirely. They think, and possess a will that they can act upon. However, they shat a trait common to all Sentinels, which is that if the Kamond in their body is destroyed, their life support functions cease." Nix explained.

"Spare us the lecturing all right? Just tell us what his condition is!" Crocell said getting impatient.

"The Kamond inside of Juto...is on the verge of breaking. It's a miracle that he's held on for this long." Nix replied.

"Wha...? What do you mean by that?" Zephie asked.

"Juto...Will cease to function soon." Nix responded sadly.

"Really?" Celestine asked, saddened by the news.

"Just like a human cannot survive if their heart is destroyed, Sentinels can't survive if their Kamond is destroyed." The room was silent.

"Juto. This is all my..." Zephie looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"Princess Rzephillda..." Rue said with sympathy.

"Nix, is there anything we can do to save him?" Zephie asked desperately.

"As the Magna Carta, it won't be impossible for you Princess, but...it will be dangerous." Nix Replied.

"What is it that i need to do?" Zephie said with determination.

"The brand of the Blood Pact...you need to re-print him with it. It you were to replace Juto's broken Kamond with one that was intact and then form a whole new pact with him... It may work. But understand that will mean you yourself will become Juto's Master, taking place of Schuenzeit." Niz warned.

"I will be like Schuenzeit?"

"Yes. By nature, Juto is much like a puppet. Life is breathed into him by the way of the Blood Pact, which then imbues him with a portion of his Master's life. Juto is a life-form which is given life through wizardry. Juto's condition is that his Kamond was destroyed when he disobeyed his Master, and the seal that bound them through the power of the pact is beginning to fade. His link with his master has been severed, and his life hovers in danger. Therefore, if a new Master can establish a pact and imbue him with new life, Juto can recover. However...there is no precedence for replacing a Master... It's never been done before. So i can't predict what might happen. If there is a problem...If something goes wrong, then there's a chance you and Juto both might never wake up. Plus, I recall hearing that you held a grudge against Elgar Princess. You did know that Juto was originally Elgar, didn't you?" There was a moment of pause.

"Yes." She said softly. "But the one I'm trying to bring back to life is Juto...not Elgar." She responded more confidently.

"Princess Rzephillda...Do you really intend to go through with this?" Rue asked.

"Can't stand by and let Juto die." Zephie said with confidence.

"I can see that your mind is made up. In that case, out first order of business is to find a new Kamond to replace the old one. Now for this, a regular Kamond won't work. It must be a Kamond of far greater capacity." Nix explained.

"Where are we supposed to find a special Kamond like that around here?" Crocell asked.

"Good point. I can't really say, but I do know that they can be found inside powerful monsters."

"Powerful monsters huh?" Crocell wondered

"Ah! Maybe..." Celestine started but was interrupted by a Marine coming through the door.

"Sir, the UNSC are on the line and are demanding your presence." The Marine said to me. I sighed.

"Took them long enough to notice one of our fleets move, I'll be right there." The Marine nodded and left the building. I turned back to the others. "I unfortunately have to deal with a nosey ally and making sure they don't react negatively for involvement here. I wish I could help with Juto but I trust you all can save him on your own. I already broke a crap ton of protocols when it comes to first contact with a new civilization but it's not the first time I've done it."

"It's no problem, we got this handled." Crocell responded.

"If they give you a hard time, they'll have to deal with me, got it?" Zephie said jokingly.

"I think they're use to me breaking protocol by now. This should just be about explaining myself. Just make sure you save Juto." With that I left the room and headed to where the Marines were set up. I came up to the communicator and told Ghost to allow the UNSC transmission through. The person contacting me was none other than-.

"Lord Hood, you wanted to speak with me?"

"Yes, we got reports that one of your fleets made a jump to uncharted space. Care to explain why that is?"

"As usual something went wrong during an exploration mission and having the fleet there was necessary. Remember Lord Hood, these are my troops and the UNSC has no jurisdiction over them."

"I would not be making this call if it was up to me. However, the spooks at ONI seem to want to keep you in check and told me to make contact with you."

"You tell ONI that I don't need to explain my actions to the UNSC anymore. I am no longer under their command."

"Sure thing, they're not really my favorite people either. I'm sorry about all of this."

"It's no big deal; I expected this to happen anyways."

"Next time, try not to spook the spooks." With that the transmission was cut off. I put a hand on my face.

'If ONI keeps this up, I'm going to get really pissed off. I know the ones that wanted me dead are gone but that doesn't mean that ONI likes me off a leach.' I thought to myself.

I took some time to oversee my troops. I heard with my cat hearing that someone was looking for me. I turn to see the same Marine that told me about the incoming transmission.

"Sir, the recon team reported it and they found Schuenzeit. He's making a move on La Strada."


	17. Chapter 17

I walked back to Celestine's house to see if the others were there. I entered the building to see everyone but for a second I didn't recognize someone. Juto was on his feet and was wearing what looks like a reinforced version of Kaito's Armor. His hair has changed from mostly black with a white highlight to solid white. On his face was a blue marking on the left side of his face. Everyone looks to me.

"I guess the process was a success." Juto simply nods. "Like the new hair, anyway I got news from my forces working recon. They found Schuenzeit and he's making a move towards La Strada."

"Figures that bastard would be moving there." Crocell replied.

"I'll be getting my men ready to move out I suggest you do the same." I say before leaving. While organizing my men, Crocell and Juto learned that someone Crocell knew has been trapped by a monster in the marsh and went to help her. I heard from the Mare child that told Crocell and Juto the news that the women was looking for "Master Crocell" meaning that Crocell was nobility. They came back and hid what they were doing out of the village from Zephie while she lectured them for not telling anyone that they had left. My men and I were on alert for hours since our group left to research something. Hours later our group came back and from the look on their faces, they found something out that was dark. Crocell came up to me with that look I've seen from a lot of young soldiers. The look of finding something out you really wishes you hadn't. There was a since between us but Crocell finally spoke up.

"You were right all along." He said silently.

"About what?"

"About what it take to maintain our world."

"Yeah, I found out when Kurama read through the Forerunner archive. It seems where ever you went confirmed it."

"Mellisa told us." That name confused me.

"Mellisa? Didn't she die on Highwind Island?" I asked

"She was captured and convinced to join the Northern Forces. She found out the whole troop and escaped." There was a couple of seconds of silence before he continued. "To think that tens of thousands of people would be required to maintain our planet for 150 years is just outrageous and sickening. To think this has happened twice before and that Strass was fabricated as a hero for destroying an entire race to make the world it is today."

"It's a brutal way to alter a planet to be more inviting for life. However, my version of Humanity has a much more permanent way of altering a planet's environment without the need of lives."

"What is it?"

"Terraforming, you alter the planet by changing the atmosphere and making a balanced ecosystem. It's been use for colonies for centuries. It fact the UNSC is using it now to rebuild the colonies lost in the war. It expensive and requires time but its permanent so long as you don't do something to ruin it such as polluting the planet. Once this is all over I might be able to convince the UNSC to aid your planet in terraforming."

"Actually, I might consider joining Galette once this is over." Crocell said taking me by surprise.

"May I ask your reasoning?"

"After learning the truth and losing everything to this damn civil war that has been meaningless, I want off this plant."

"You are welcome to come. Who knows, you may become one of my best officers in the military."

"We'll see about that." Crocell said with a smirk.

"Lanzheim may join Galette as well." A new feminine voice pipes up. I turn to see Zephie.

"That's not something I expected to hear from you Princess." I said in reply.

"Kurama was telling me about Galette and how you run the country. I overheard the part about terraforming. I would rather have someone I trust do that sort of thing and not a third party I just met."

"Not that Galette isn't capable of terraforming but we don't have as many resources as the UNSC. Galette would need more time to accomplish the task."

"I have already accepted that rebuilding Lanzheim through the fall of La Strada will take time."

"How about we leave this conversation for another time when this whole thing is behind us?" I suggested getting a giggle from the Princess and receiving a nod from her. Ghost then appeared next to me.

"Sir, Incoming transmission from Captain N'theha."

"Patch it through."

"My Emperor, we have found what you call La Strada."

"Good work, send me the location. It's time we finished this cycle of bloodshed once and for all." The transmission was cutoff and for a brief moment looked at my new friends. They heard the transmission and went to gather the others. They returned not to long later. "Gather around Marines!" I yell out as the 30 marines that came with us group up in front of me as I stand on a crate. "Today we come here to bring down a man who's morals are twisted and unforgiving. Today we come to save a planet from a bloody cycle that has been running for well over a thousand years killing tens of thousands in the process. Today is your first call of action as Marines to make the galaxy a better place for all living things. Marines! Today is the day the Galette Marines begun their legacy as the toughest sons of bitches it the galaxy!"

"Hoorah!" The 30 Marines chant as one and the voices echoed all over the marsh.

"Mount up Marines! We are going to war!"

"Hoorah!" They shouted once more and the group began to move towards their vehicles. I get down form the crate back to the others.

"Interesting speech you made." Crocell pointed out.

"Not quite what I expected from an advanced civilizations military." Zephie added.

"Hey it works; you'll be riding with me. It's time we ended this."


	18. Chapter 18

"So how do we plan on getting up to La Strada?" Crocell asked.

"I will handle that, The Marines will breach the side of La Strada and assault the ship. We will follow in after they clear the initial engagement." I say while loading my assault rifle. "I will be with my Marines clearing the ship of enemies. Your goal is Schuenzeit, I will regroup with you once we are done clearing the ship." We reached the site where the recon team was holding outside La Strada. Everyone exited their vehicles, The Marines set up a perimeter while i approached the recon team. They saluted as I approach which i return.

"How many went in?" I asked the Sergeant of the team.

"Not enough, less than our numbers." I nodded at the news.

"Well then our enemy is in for a rude awakening. Join up with the others and prepare to assault the ship."

"Yes sir!" The team saluted and moved to the Marines. The Marines equiped them selves with jetpacks and made their way to the side of La Strada. I watched as they planted a breach charge on the side and stacked up on both sides of the ship.

"Waiting for your signal."

"3...2...1...Breach!" A violent explosion erupted creating a huge hole in the side of La Strada. The Marines entered the ship, there was some gunfire but it ended just as quickly as it started.

"Clear!" As soon as i heard that i put my hand on Crocell and teleported them to the ship much to their surprise. The inside was very hollow and it seemed like there was only platforms connected by walk ways with no rooms or anything. I turned to our allies telling them to go after Schuenziet while we clear the ship. We separated as me and the Marines moved across the walk ways. We killed 3 when we breached the ship and another 4 when we entered. As we moved we came up to a huge platform and something fell from the ceiling. It was humongous and i can't even begin to describe what it was.

"This must be a sentinel." Kurama said next to me. I noticed a huge red looking gem on its chest and thought that must be its Kamond.

"Railgun on that Gem!" a Marine came up and charged his railgun, the blast annihilated the Kamond and sent the Sentinel over the edge into the darkness below. With the Sentinel dealt with, we continued to clear the ship of hostiles with ease. As we entered the next section of the ship we were met with Zephie's group and the same women from Oldfox Canyon.

"I see you're dead set on the world's destruction so that the princess may survive." The women stated.

"Even if I die, there will be another war in 150 years. I refuse to let this vicious cycle continue." Zephie Countered

"This is all for the greater good of Lanzhiem. You are such an Egotist." The women said in frustration.

"Actually you're the Egotist." I interrupt making me and my troop's presence known. "You are willing to let tens of thousands of lives to be ended for a temporary fix of a harsher environment. That's the same concept as a drug. You are so afraid of change that you are willing to kill to make sure you're in the right." I say taking off my helmet.

"Foreigners should stay out of this, this is a Lanzhiem affair!" The women yelled in hate.

"This is a humanitarian affair, I made a vow to protect humanity and my people from those who seek to harm them. Believe me, if this event went interstellar, you would have a lot more than us to worry about. I will not allow people like you who believe there have the right to kill innocent lives for something that will only be around for a couple of generation before asking for more blood." i say with a cold voice and my eyes turning Silver.

"He's right; you have no right to criticize me. You hid behind the words "Protecting the World" as you cause suffering!" Zephie added.

"Don't bother trying to persuade me, people are living in a paradise right now. You're action can't be justified, not when you're trying to rob the people of their paradise. Can you be so certain that a world maintained by human lives is entirely evil?" The women countered.

"Living in constant threat of war, sound like hell to me." One of the marines said behind me.

"To someone out there, this is the true one." The women added.

"That's true, I'm sure you want to believe that. But the world you want to protect an the one we want to protect are fundamentally different." said Zephie.

"Anymore talking is a waste of time with her. It would be faster to let our beliefs and righteousness butt heads and sort things out." Juto explained.

"As you wish." The women said in a hostile tone. The women raised her pistol at us but didn't get far. There was a bang that echoed in the hollow ship. The women had a shocked expression on her face. After a second she fell down face first holding her abdomen and was having trouble breathing. Everyone looked for the shot origin to see me with my pistol raised with my eye color switched from gold to silver. I knew that the wound was fatal; she would bleed out within a couple of minutes. I was pissed off that these people honestly thought that they had the right to manipulate and kill tens of thousands of innocent people for something that meant nothing more than a drug. I lowered my pistol and looked at the women with a cold and dark look. The Princess approached the fallen women.

"If you would only die...it would buy us more than 100 years' of time...Why...do you fight it?" The women said in a weak voice as blood continued to form around her.

"We don't need a fake paradise that only last 100 years. It's not important that the lives to be born after this won't be sacrificed." Zephie explain confidently.

"We don't need a paradise sustained by the sacrifice of others." Juto added.

"I can't understand you...Why...would you want to return us...to that sterile, barren land?" The women asked very confused.

"That is the world's true form." Juto stated plainly.

"I have been to a planet that has the same environment that this one should have. The people there are strong and survive just as well as the people here in this so called paradise." I added.

"Mark my words, if you destroy La Stada, you will regret it." The women replied.

"No matter what happens, I'll have no regrets." Juto said defiantly.

"Perhaps you don't understand what I am saying." The women said softly.

"I do understand, but in spite of that... I'm still going." Juto stated.

"You're...a fool... Lord Schuenzeit...forgive me... for not being of more use to you." With those final words the women in the blue dress breathes her last breath and dies from blood lost. I look towards the Counter Sentinel unit with my silver eyes.

"Let's finish this."


	19. Chapter 19

I order my men to leave the ship since their job was done while Kurama and I went with the Counter-Sentinel Unit to confront Schuenziet. We entered the final chamber of La Strada to find Schuenzeit suspended in the air and just behind him was a preserved corpse.

"So you have come to me at last." The man said.

"Strauss' corpse- it looks exactly like Schuenteit!" Celestine exclaimed. Besides to borderline black skin and the long white hair it was true.

'He's a duplicate just like Elgar!' I thought.

"I don't believe it... it's impossible...Schuenzeit-" Zephie was interrupted.

"Indeed, I am Strauss' duplicate. This is the same thing as Elgar." Schuenzeit stated.

"That means... you also started the Avis War and the Ruhaltz Civil War!"

"Technically that was not me, but then again it was. They were caused by earlier duplicates."

'How the hell does no one notice exact copies for over a thousand years?' I ask in my head.

"Then why did you not offer yourself as the sacrifice?" Juto said anger entering his voice.

"Over the generations of duplicates, my Kamond lost a great deal of its power. I don't have the power to be the Magna Carta." Schuenzeit explained.

"The number of lives you taken and the pain you've cause is sickening to comprehend." I state in a dark tone.

"This is the world i have protected. this is the paradise i have created. To Lanzhiem, I am like a god. Were it not for me, Lanzhiem would not exist. Why do you people resist?"

"Check the ego on this guy." I mumble to myself.

"You're not trying to protect this world, you just want it twisted to your will!" Juto exclaimed.

"Silence!" Schuenzeit who is not reveal as Strauss tried to take control of Juto once again but white energy repelled it attempt.

"Ah, so you own your life to the young lady." Strauss stated.

"Schuenzeit...No, Strauss...Stop this now. What you are doing is not for the good of the world." Zephie stated trying to convince Strauss. "you may have saved the world 1,000 years ago but now you've taken a wrong turn." There was some arguing until Strauss had enough.

"I see that talk is meaningless, as expected, draw your swords!" Strauss drew his sword and advanced towards us. I put a hand on my katana he charged at us. I kept the others back as I advanced. Strauss with a powerful cry tried to bring his sword down on my head. With the speed faster than normal human eyes could follow, I draw my sword. The Plasma Blade cut through Strauss' sword like nothing was there. I turn around to see Strauss look at his blade not cut in two. The cut mark now had only melted steel making the blade useless. Strauss turns to me just as i get into a standard kendo stance.

"Hiten Mitsurugi style, Kuzuryusen." To everyone I disappear and reappear behind Strauss in the same stance. There was a moment where no one moved. I flick my sword out and began to sheath it. When the sword was sheathed, nine wounds spurted blood on Strauss as he fell to the floor. Strauss surprisingly got onto a knee and his appearance changed much like the corpse from before but had multiple purple energy runes on him. The princess drew closer to him.

"If you destroy La Strada, The Kan Cycle will disappear and we will no longer reap the benefits. There will no longer be miracles such as planting a seed and seeing the plant bear crops in moments. Humanity has grown lax and idle because of the bounty they're given."

"That's a fault on your part Strauss, you gave them that bounty and that's the repercussion you made." I stated

"Sentinels will also cease functioning." He added.

"What?!" Zephie exclaimed.

'Crap, Juto.'

"Knowing that, will you still destroy La Strada?" Strauss asked Juto.

"Of course I will, I knew all along this would happen." Juto said grabbing his sword and charging Strauss. He jumped up and stabbed the orb of purple energy keeping La Strada up.

"No don't! Juto stop please!" Zephie exclaimed. A purple rune appeared on her hand and as Juto pulled out his sword for another attack. He grunted in pain.

"Juto please stop! If you do this, you'll die!" Celestine exclaimed.

"No fate is set in stone; I'm not going to die." Juto said getting ready to strike.

"Stop it I said! Juto aren't you listening to me!?" Zephie yelled desperate for Juto to stop. Juto was in a great deal of pain due to him disobeying Zephie.

"Stop this at once!" Rue ordered.

"If I don't do this People like Schuenzeit will keep coming. Please Zephie order me to do this." Juto said looking at Zephie. At this time I was mustering a bit of Ki and came up with one way how Juto could survive this. I did the same thing with Dust but without the transfer of blood. I would transfer enough Ki to keep him alive to replace his Kan. I did so with Kurama being the only one noticing it.

"You're too kind for your own good Justin." Kurama whispered to me.

"It's barely a fraction of my Ki and it will regenerate so what's the issue." I whispered back.

"Since you refuse to do as your told in the end, do whatever you want. But this is a direct order, you must not die!" Zephie yelled. "I'm begging you...please...don't die." Zephie said on the verge of tears, voice cracking.

"I promise." Juto struck the heart of La Strada one last time. I teleported everyone else out of the ship before a massive explosion erupted. Everyone looks up to see the once mighty ship start to plummet to the ground. With La Strada destroyed, the nightmare is over.

2 Weeks go by, Thel's fleet leave the system leaving Kurama and I on the planet until we decide to leave. As warned, Kan and wizardry disappear from the world. To be honest the world was greener was still greener than expected. The reactions were mixed among the people. Some are complaining that they are working themselves half to death while others say that they were told the world would end and yet here they were alive. The Doomseeds have also disappeared. Crocell has decided to leave the world with Kurama and I seeing no point in staying on a world where he lost everything. In those 2 weeks Crocell and I have been taking about our past. I would often comfort Crocell when he brought something painful up. At this point, Crocell was like a younger brother to me and Crocell even stated he saw me as an older brother. Crocell asking me to train him in Ki was no surprise. However, asking me to teach him Japanese swordsmanship was not expected but I agreed to do it.

It was our last day on the planet so we met up with the former members of Counter-Sentinel Unit. As we neared the group it seemed that Crocell has already began to say his goodbyes.

"Yo." I say as we neared the group.

"Justin, Kurama I hear that Crocell is leaving with you." Said Zephie.

"That would be correct, Princess. You don't have to worry about him, he's in good hands." Kurama replied.

"I have no doubts." Zephie smiled. "I want to thank you both for everything. You've done so much for Lanzhiem, I only wish there was something I could do to reward you both."

"We don't do these kinds of things for rewards or fame. Like I said I made a vow to help those in need." I replied.

"I only wish Juto was here to celebrate with us." Zephie said saddening the mood.

"But I am here." A familiar voice sounded. Every turned to see Juto standing there complete fine.

"Damn you took your time getting back. You actually had them convinced you were dead." I said to Juto.

"Wha...But Strauss said..." Zephie started.

"His Kamond no longer runs on Kan, it uses Ki." Kurama added.

"I gave him some of my Ki so that he would survive the disappearance of Kan form the world." I explained.

"Well then I guess I owe you my life then." Juto said looking to me. Juto's friends finally shook themselves from their shock and rushed over to him leaving Kurama, Crocell and I. We sat there for a minute just watching the reunion before I spoke up again.

"Well, we have to get going. Come on let's get out of here." Kurama and Crocell followed me outside the city I pressed a button on my gauntlet and summoned my Eagle spaceship. Crocell let out a whistle. Crocell and Kurama entered through the cargo bay while I climbed into the cockpit.

"All aboard." I heard behind me. I started the engines and put on my flight helmet, and lifted off. I look to my right to the ground to see the friends I made on this world waving to me. I gave them a casual salute and pushed the throttle rocketing towards the atmosphere. Within seconds we were in the darkness of space.

"Flonyard here we come. Initiate jump Ghost."

"Initiating jump." A blue portal opened up as we entered slip-space. I put the ship on auto pilot and left the pilot seat. "Well, time to get comfortable."


End file.
